Ori and the Spirit Portal (Act 1)
by Banshee44
Summary: The forest of Nibel is a large, dazzling world, home to many creatures. One species is known as the Spirit Guardians, the guardians of the spirit tree. After the near extinction of them and the corruption of the elements, Ori, Sein, and Zander, a human sent from the spirit portal, must save Nibel. (Please check out Act 2 of Ori and the Spirit Portal when you have finished this)
1. Prologue

PROLOGUE

WE SHALL ALWAYS REMEMBER THE NIGHT, WHEN I LOST ORI TO THE GREAT STORM….

A storm, came upon the Forest of Nibel. But this is nothing she cannot handle though, she had seen and dealt with worst. She sits on the edge of a cliff, and sees a glowing leaf, one from the Spirit Tree, flutter overhead. "What is that doing here?" Naru thinks to herself. Curiosity brings Naru to follow the leaf through the forest. After a little while, the leaf lands and comes to a stop on a boulder, and Naru approaches it, the glowing leaf. It pulses with light and reveals a creature, curled up in a ball, sound asleep.

"What is this? Why did it appear here? It's all alone…" She picks up the creature, so small, so fragile, and so young. It's glowing with light, and illuminating the whole area, making night seem like day, and it makes Naru forget about the storm. She holds it close to herself, it's adorable, and she'd never seen anything like it. Naru vows to raise this creature… ORI is its name.

AND WHEN NARU EMBRACED MY LIGHT…

Ori awakens slowly in a cave. It is bright and there is food lying in baskets all around. Above is a small dream catcher, and on a rock below is a drawing of Ori and Naru, sitting together, holding hands. Ori sits back, stretches and yawns, as it awakens for its first time. Ori climbs down from the little makeshift bed and explores the cave for a bit. Little patches of hay as a bed for Naru, and the food lying around.

AS A CHILD OF HER OWN…

Noticing nothing special about the cave, Ori leaves the cave. It squints as a wave of wind and sunlight hit its face. It looks left and sees a gigantic tree in the distance, it's oddly… interesting, it makes Ori feel happy, and safe.

Ori walks ahead and sees Naru under a tree. Naru turns and sees her child finally awake, and reaches down for Ori's hand. Ori jumps up and Naru lifts it up onto her back, and shakes the tree, causing fruit to fall from the tree, and gives some to Ori to eat, then makes an "X" on the tree, showing that it's no longer bearing fruit.

Naru continues through a clearing, to a small river, which blocks their path. She points ahead for Ori to see on the other side of the river, a great amount of trees, with gratuitous amounts of fruit on them. Naru starts to get logs and vines to build a bridge and Ori joins her, pushing logs, much bigger than its size, into a row for Naru and it to build with. She and Ori spend all day building this bridge with supports, and using other trees along the river to make swinging log platforms to stand on.

ON THAT FATEFUL NIGHT…

Ori notices a flash of light in the forest, and decides to check it out. Looking back and seeing Naru enjoying the fruit, Ori grabs a handful and walks into the forest. The light feels… oddly welcoming, warm, and fills Ori with energy.

WHEN I LIT THE SKIES ABLAZE…

Ori comes into the clearing right in front of the cave and sees it, the Great tree, shining brighter than the sun with a great blue light, Ori feels compelled to go to it, but Naru picks up Ori, checks to see if it's ok, and runs into the cave. Little did she know this would be a mistake that would change her and Ori's lives for the worst.

I CALLED OUT TO ORI…

They continue their lives inside the caves, Naru doesn't trust the outside world enough, and she doesn't want to lose her only child. Naru awoken abruptly, with Ori in her arms. She stands up, places Ori on its bed, and wanders out to gather more food.

YET HOPE NEVER CAME…

Before she exits the cave, she sees one, old fruit. "This won't feed Ori, I need to find more." To her horror, she sees all of the leaves are turning brown, and falling off. "It's the middle of Rebirth, the leaves are supposed to be coming back, not falling off!" She continues further to see the bridge her and Ori build, and the river underneath completely gone.

THROUGH THE PASSAGE OF TIME, LIFE WITHERED AND DECAYED…

"Something is wrong, why is everything….. Disappearing? Dying?" She continues further to search for food, and comes upon a tree, with one branch, with twelve pieces of fruit on it. She feels happier knowing that she and Ori can eat. She climbs up the tree, but the branch before the fruit bearing one breaks, and she falls to her back.

She slowly gets up, unharmed, and realizes she can't climb up the tree. She makes her way back to the cave, and comes to a stand at the same piece of fruit. "One fruit left." She picks it up and takes it to Ori and sets it down. Ori wakes slowly, blinks twice and sits back. Ori picks up the fruit and offers it to Naru, who kindly declines it….. Ori knows she needs to eat, so while Naru naps, Ori goes into the forest in search for fruit. Ori comes across the same tree Naru was at, and inspects the fallen branch. Ori knows Naru was here.

Ori climbs the tree and shakes the branch of its fruit, and takes it back to the cave.

WHERE THERE IS DARKNESS, HOPE WILL SHOW ITS FACE

Ori continues to the cave, over the bridge, and the broken swing. Ori spots a shadow moving in the distance but doesn't stop. Ori comes to the cave entrance, so close, Naru can eat once again. Ori enters, and sees Naru asleep….. Or so it seems. Ori approaches Naru and drops the fruit on the ground, and grabbing one, and showing Naru what it got. Naru doesn't move. Ori slowly walks towards Naru, and shows the fruit to Naru. Nothing. Ori drops the fruit and begins pushing her. NOTHING…. Ori jumps up onto Naru's chest and stares in awe, its only mother, the only one it ever knew… is dead. Ori lies down on her chest and moans in sadness.

AN ORPHAN ONCE MORE

Ori stands on a cliff's edge, and looks over the horizon. Ori groans in loneliness, and begins to climb down…

WITH NO REASON TO STAY

Ori begins to walk through the forest, alone, Ori has never been alone, it always had Naru with it…

SEARCHING FOR MY LIGHT

Ori comes to a tree, and leans on it, why does it feel so weak? Ori moves on to a small tree, blocking its path, it attempts to climb up, but it's so weak, that it takes so much to get over…

SO WEAK AND SO FRAIL

Ori makes it over, and continues its way through the forest. It ducks under a low hanging branch and comes across a thorn bush…

WHEN CRIES WERE MET WITH SILENCE

Ori tried to make it through the thorny bush, but slipped, and punctured its belly…

AND HOPE WENT ASTRAY

Ori struggled to make it out of the thorn bush, and escaped, but its legs were barely working by that time. Ori attempted to go down a small slope, but slipped and rolled down to the rocky bottom, hitting its head…

WHEN MY CHILDS STRENGTH FALTERED

Ori shakes its head, and starts pulling itself over the rocks and sticks, body in writhing pain. Ori crawls only a few meters before collapsing…

AND THE LAST BREATH WAS DRAWN

Ori was dead… next to it, a flower bloomed, glowing with light…. Then another, soon tons of flowers were blooming moving the fog away, revealing the Spirit Tree, pulsating with light, using the last of its remaining light to do something that would change the fate of Nibel…

MY LIGHT REVIVED ORI, A NEW AGE HAD DAWNED


	2. First Steps into the Sunken Glades

CHAPTER 1

FIRST STEPS INTO THE SUNKEN GLADES

Ori rose into the air, circled by the light it was born by… Ori flexed its arms, it felt as if they were replaced by new, stronger ones, they felt great. Ori landed on the ground abruptly, and rose up to look around. To the left there was nothing, to the right, a ginormous tree… the one it saw before, but Ori didn't feel like going to it. Ori pressed on forward, and comes across a tree, with a hole in the center, big enough for anything to go through. Ori approaches it and tries to jump up but it's too high. Ori turned to see a small rock, on a ledge, maybe high enough to jump off of. Ori gets on the rock and jumps as hard as it can and misses again, by inches. It tries again, and just barely making it, scraping its legs against the hard wood. The legs…. They weren't hurting anymore, they were stronger, and it felt great.

Ori pressed on to a wide log and below it, a hole, next to solid ground. Ori looked ahead and saw a small hole. "What's in there?" It walked up to it and saw a small glowing yellow ball. Curiosity got the best of it and it clawed the dirt and rocks away, and approached the yellow thing. It gravitated towards Ori and disappeared after touching Ori. "What just happened? Where did it go?" Ori knew it didn't disappear, it could feel it somewhere. Inside it actually, like it was…. Getting full on food, but that made Ori hungrier for this "yellow stuff." Ori saw a ledge above the newly created hole in the wall, but once again wouldn't be able to reach it.

So Ori instead turned its interests to the hole. Ori jumped down and examined the hole, and couldn't see the bottom, but wasn't scared of heights. Ori jumped without hesitation into the hole, and hit the ground, without any pain. "I feel like that should've hurt." Ori thought, but continued on. Ori came across a small pond, with logs floating in it, only this wasn't water, it was purple, and didn't look healthy to drink, but Ori wasn't thirsty. It jumped across the logs and got to the other side, and saw it, a blue ball. Ori walked up to it and touched it. The blue ball popped and it made Ori feel strange. Ori tried to see what that did, and concentrated hard, and suddenly, POOF, a blue fire, but it wasn't hot.

This didn't really affect Ori so it just continued on into the cave. Ori hits a dead end after walking just a bit farther, and doesn't know what to do, suddenly a creature busts out of the wall, startling Ori. It spots Ori and rushes after it. Ori doesn't know what to do in time and is hit, and obliterated, reduced to nothing but light.


	3. Rebirth

CHAPTER 2

REBIRTH

Ori woke abruptly, from the blue fire. "WHAT JUST HAPPENED?" Ori thought. It looked around and saw the exact same place it made that fire in. Ori rose up and just assumed it was a dream, but cautiously carried on. Ori got to the same place it…. "Died in" and stopped. Ori turned to the wall the creature came out of and waited, suddenly the creature reappeared, bursting out of the wall. Ori reacted quickly to its rush and jumped over it. It smashed into the wall and made a small opening, while being crushed by a boulder in the ceiling. Ori felt bad, but noticed it, the yellow lights, except they were smaller. Ori walked and tried to grab them, but evaporated at its fingertips.

Ori thought nothing of this and carried on, and came upon a large opening, with a huge tree trunk, fallen on its side. Ori approached it and climbed up it, and saw a tiny ball of light. "What is that? Another weird thing?" Ori approached it and picked it up… without touching it. It rose into the air and glowed intensely and exploded with light. Ori shielded its eyes, and reopened them, to see what had happened. Ori had found me.


	4. Finding Sein

CHAPTER 3

FINDING SEIN

DEEP IN THE FOREST, ORI FOUND WHAT WAS LOST…

"Hello, I am sein, the light and eyes of the Spirit Tree." "I was lost in this glen when she loosened her grip." "But wait do you hear that? Listen closely they must have followed you here!" Suddenly, 3 creatures, different from the last, fell from the sky. Ori reacted defensively, and tried to run, but I started to create Spirit Flames, and threw them at the creatures, killing them quickly. Ori turned to me. "Their light shall return to me, the Spirit Tree once spoke these words to me, quickly we must find him, and he's just through the spirit caverns. Ori and I hurried back to the hole. Ori stopped and couldn't see how we could return. I noticed a purple mass and threw the flames at it, revealing a blue bulb, great for reaching heights with.

Ori noticed another patch of the purple mass on the wall and pointed at it, which I once again eradicated. Behind it was a room, with a Spirit Well in it. "Ah Ori, a Spirit Well, these are ancient structures connected to the roots of the spirit tree, we can use this to regain strength, as if taking a long nap." Ori stood on it gathered light into its body, cleansing wounds and healing cuts. Ori felt so relaxed, but something caught its eye, another yellow thing, trapped in a yellow orb, it was big. But Ori couldn't reach it. So we instead continued on. Bouncing up the blue bulb, Ori found it to be no challenge to try and get back up.

Ori and I continued to the next area, with a Spirit Gate on the other side of the area. "Ori that is a Spirit Gate, we need to find the keys to open it, they look like rectangular rocks." Ori turned and saw a recently moved boulder, and pulled it out of the way, back over its old tracks. Ori didn't care about its newfound strength, but only for the rectangular rock hidden in that room, the first key stone. Ori took it and left the room in search for the other one. Ori looked about and saw platforms hanging, leading to another platform. Ori climbed the branch next to it to reach these platforms, and on the other side, another key stone. Ori hopped across the platforms hanging by vines, and took it, then jumped down to open the Spirit Gate. "Great, now we can find our way up to the Spirit Tree" I said. Unknowing of the huge journey we would have to take after. Ori inserted the stones into the perfectly shaped indentions in the gate, and it slowly opened, stone grinding upon stone, and revealed the path further into the forest.


	5. Up the Spirit Caverns Walls

CHAPTER 4

UP THE SPIRIT CAVERNS WALLS

Ori and I walked slowly as not to alert any other creatures in the forest. Ever since the forest lost its light and became blind, creatures I never knew even existed, started to pop up all over the forest. We came upon a rock with words ground into it, a sign, pointing left was Spirit Caverns, and pointing to the right was the Hallow Grove. "Ori, before we head towards the Spirit Caverns, we should check out the Hallow Grove, just in case." Ori nodded and we headed right. First thing we saw was a frog type creature, it was large and didn't look to friendly. We passed by it far enough to where it didn't notice us. We climbed up the only path we could go, up some giant mushrooms, and I saw it. "Ori, green orb, that's a life cell, it will harden your skin, and you will become stronger, more resistant!" Ori liked the idea of not feeling pain, so it went to go grab it, and it disappeared, being absorbed into Ori's body. The sound of Ori's skin crinkling and hardening was audible.

There was a path above us but we didn't think to try to even reach it, since it was too high, so we just went towards the Spirit Caverns. We were greeted by another frog creature, which wasn't a problem for me. Creatures of the dark fall easily to the light. We started to descend into the caves. It was fairly evident that if we went in there, we would have a lot of trouble trying to get out, the walls were too steep to climb back up. When we got to the bottom, we continued to go further into the caves. When we got into the clearing of the caves, we saw it. The only thing we would need to get out.


	6. Ancestral Trees

CHAPTER 5

ANCESTRAL TREES

THERE WERE THOSE WHO TURNED TO HOPE…

…WHEN SHE RAVAGED AND KILLED

We found one, an Ancestral Tree, the light and souls of our kind are stored in these when we die. "The light of the spirit tree lives in all of us. He's the reason we're alive, he's the reason we grew. When he called out to find you, many years past. We were attacked, wounded and killed by our foe. Now the ancestral trees are all that's left behind. Come closer and feel the light of Fil, the spirit inside." Ori approached the tree and the light inside rushed towards it, lifting Ori in the air. Leaves sprouted on the tree immediately, as Ori gained the light and soul of the spirit inside the tree. Once all the light had drained from the tree, Ori floated to the ground and stood back up. "Fil had abilities, just like the rest of us, and the light and soul you absorbed now allow you to use what he learned. What did you learn?" Ori immediately ran to the left and shot up the wall, reaching the top, and getting an Energy Cell, that I couldn't even see on top of it. "Great, Fil knew how to climb walls, so now you can, good, I was beginning to think we would never make it out of this godforsaken cave." I said.

We made our way back through the cave, and Ori kept climbing walls to check what was atop them, and just for the heck of it. It was nice seeing Ori jump around off the walls, acting like it already forgot about its mother's death. I stopped thinking about it there and we kept moving. When we got to where the cave started ascending, Ori used its newfound ability to climb walls and made its way up the cave. I'm glad that we found that tree when we did. When we got out we were greeted by another enemy creature. No match for the light, the creature fell quickly, leaving more yellow light on the ground, which Ori gathered. Suddenly, an ear piercing sound filled the air and Ori filled with light, and then the light left its body, in a blinding explosion. "Ori, the yellow light, that is called spirit light, it's a part of creature's body that leaves when they die, as a Guardian Spirit, you can harvest this light. When you have collected enough of this, your body will take it, and refine it, turning it into pure light. The rest of the light is catapulted out of your body." I said to Ori.

"You can use the refined light to enhance any part of your body, you have to create a soul link though. You have done it before, I saw the one you made after you found me as we were leaving the cave." I said. Ori closed its eyes and concentrated, slowly blue light started circling Ori, then suddenly, a soul link formed, the blue flame. Then Ori sat down surrounded by the flame, and concentrated, suddenly I felt stronger, Ori used the pure light to strengthen my abilities. The Spirit Flame turned into a spark when I used it. Ori had learned how to use pure light. "Alright, now we need to make our way to the Spirit Tree, it isn't far from where we are."


	7. Spirit Tree

CHAPTER 6

THE SPIRIT TREE

Sometimes I forget how large this forest really is, we've been walking for an hour (Or at least Ori has been walking for an hour), and it feels like we have gotten nowhere. "I feel like we've seen that tree already." Ori looks at me sarcastically, like I should know where the tree is. "Hey don't look at me like that, I don't explore this forest or keep note of where things are, I didn't expect to be on this huge journey just to get back to the tree." Ori sighs and keeps moving forward.

We come across a large tree, not the Spirit Tree, but it is hallow and has a wooden structure inside, to reach the higher parts of the tree. There are a lot of creatures, bound to the walls and vomiting pink projectiles, unaffected by gravity. "Ori be careful here, those look like they will hurt you, try to get over or around them." Ori begins to climb the walls of the tree and using the platforms to ascend the tree, and as focused as it could be, dodging all of the projectiles, at least half of Ori's body size. Ori notices a shiny object in a nook of the tree and jumps for it. It's a key stone. Ori holds onto it and keeps exploring the tree for more stones, just in case we find a Spirit Gate.

After exploring the tree for a while, and a bit of close calls with thorny surfaces, Ori gathers 4 stones. Unable to find anymore, Ori continues to ascend the tree, until Ori notices a cracked wall. Ori jumps at it, and begins digging at it, after some determination, it breaks through and reveals an energy gate. "Oh Ori, this is an energy gate, those Energy cells you collected contain energy, and can store energy. One of those cells can fill up one of the four slots on this gate, but you only have two, so we will have to come back later." Ori sighs in disappointment and continues climbing, until we get to a Spirit Gate. "Finally, let's get out of here." Ori inserts the stones their correct slots and the door slides open, with a stone on stone grinding sound, and it reveals it. The Spirit Tree.


	8. Kuro's Rage

CHAPTER 7

KURO'S RAGE

SOMBER THEY FOUND ME, DORMANT AND STILL…

WE TOLD ORI THE TALE OF HER MISGUIDED WILL…

Ori slowly approached the Spirit Tree, so tall, once pulsing with life and light, now cold and dark. "Ori, the Spirit Tree, he must have used the last of his light to revive you. He put the light in your hands. Come close now and hear the tale, it was the night of the Light Ceremony. It was our light that she hated." We told Ori the story of the night when we used the light and called out to it. But Ori never came. Then Kuro, the dark owl struck, and attacked our kind, killing many, and stealing the orb of light atop the Spirit Tree.

KURO STOLE SEIN, AND IT WAS THE END OF OUR DAYS…

BUT ORI CAME ALONG AND SAVED US FROM UNCERTAIN FATE…

"Ori all the elements are corrupt and broken, leading Nibel to die and rot. We must fix the elements, we must remove the corruption from them, and we must bring Nibel back to the way it was."


	9. The Elements

CHAPTER 8

THE ELEMENTS

"There are three known elements, Water, held atop the Ginso Tree, Wind, kept inside the Forlorn Ruins, and Warmth, kept deep inside of Mount Horu. The Spirit Tree kept these elements stable and in return they kept Nibel alive, but now the Spirit Tree lies dormant, and cannot keep them stable, so we must restore the elements, to bring Nibel back to the way it was." Ori looked confused, it was a lot of information to take in, but it understood most of it. "The first and fastest element to restore would have to be the Water Element, atop the Ginso Tree, let's start heading towards that."

Ori went to the nearby Spirit Well in front of the Spirit Tree to heal its cuts and bruises and we went on our way. We headed to the right of the tree, opposite from where we entered and I noticed cracks in the ground. "Ori, be careful, this ground is unstable." Ori looked ahead and saw a creature, one of the jumping ones, and got its attention by making noise. "Ori what are you doing?" Ori walked away from the cracks just as the creature jumped and was descending. The creature hit the ground hard and broke through the ground revealing a cave. I killed the creature and we both ventured down the hole. Getting out wouldn't be a problem, since the hole is right up against a wall.

The first thing we see is two ways to go, one drop off ahead, and one pathway behind us. We went down the second path to see a vertical tube, upon exploring it we found a switch. Ori turned the switch, and we heard gears turning, but we didn't know what it was. We knew we would find out what changed eventually, so we went back the other way and went down the second path. There was a drop off leading to ANOTHER path, and straight ahead was a ledge with a stone on it, orange, with weird engravings on it, a fragment of a map stone. "Ori, that over there, that's a map stone fragment, if we get that, and find the map stone, we could draw out where we are and be able to go." Ori could tell that we wouldn't be able to get there by climbing or jumping, so we would need to find another way to get there. We jumped down and went through the path under the ledge where we were. We came across a rock wall with cracks all over it, emanating with blue light. I used my spark flame on it for a while and that went absolutely nowhere, so we turned around and went back, and went down the other path. And we were about to get another bit of help where we were going.


	10. Second Life

CHAPTER 9

SECOND LIFE

Zander

I lie in bed wide awake, I don't want to go to school tomorrow. My name is Zander, I moved to Florida recently, and I'm going to my new school in the morning. I hate going to new places, with new people… it scares me. I close my eyes and try to fall asleep, the melatonin should kick in any second now. I feel myself drifting to sleep, this is going to happen anyway, might as well sleep so I don't regret not sleeping tomorrow…

My eyes pop open and I look at the time, 2:30am… god, leave it to nothing to wake me up. Suddenly I see the door next to my room light up around the edges. That's the basement, what could be happening down there? I throw on a shirt and jeans, get out of bed and slowly walk towards the door. When I get there I slowly open the door and I see it down the stairs, the bright blue glowing orb. I hop down the steps and stare at it. It's so bright, so warm, and obviously not normal light. It has density, it feels like I'm walking around in a fog, but it's not humid. I slowly reach for it and it gets brighter. I hesitate for a second, and continue reaching for it. Suddenly blackness. I float in a void, but I'm not scared…. It's welcoming… I'm so sleepy… so sleepy… so sleepy… I close my eyes and drift to sleep…

MY CHILD WOULD SOON DISCOVER…

I slowly wake up, my head is pulsing with a horrible headache. I rub my eyes and everything comes into focus. A forest… well, a strange forest, it doesn't feel right, not like a forest should, everything is dead or dying, it's unnerving. I stand up and look around, wondering why the hell I'm in the middle of a forest, and I start to wonder, "Why isn't it hot, it's the middle of summer in Florida, and its midday, but here it is borderline cold." I start to panic, thinking I was kidnapped, but I quickly throw that thought out, I would have woken up if I was. And that bright blue orb what was that all about?

…A NEW CREATURE, COMPLETELY FOREIGN TO THIS WORLD

I begin to wander around, not something you are supposed to do in this situation but I don't care about that, I want to know where I am. This doesn't look like a normal forest, the trees are so wide, and have paths cut through the center of them. I pass through one of the paths and it leads to a small pond with a small bridge running over it. Closer inspection of the water shows that it's a purplish color… Not safe to drink. Ahead I see a small stone rectangle, with the center cut out, like a pathway, or support for the rocks overhead.

I walk inside and I realize this "thing" is a massive tree, hallowed out with a way up, which will be hard to do, since I'm too short to reach it. I took rock climbing earlier in my life, so this shouldn't be TO hard. After climbing and crossing over more bridges, I finally get to the top, another one of those pathways, with the concrete support. I walk through and see it, the biggest tree I've ever seen, with holes all over it, and the same light pouring out of it. I then realize, I'm not in America, I'm not even on earth, this can't make since, this isn't scientifically possible! I walk forward and I see a large concrete ring with light coming out of it. I approached the ring and stand on it, the light is so warm, I think I'll lie here for a bit….. just a small nap….


	11. The Child of Light

CHAPTER 10

THE CHILD

Sein

"Ori, an ancestral tree! This could help us advance into our journey! Go and absorb the light from the tree." Ori approaches the tree and the light rushes towards it, leaves sprouting on the tree as the light drains from the tree, and Ori lands on the ground in a blinding explosion. I suddenly feel a hole in me, well not a hole, a space, it's not in me, but around me. "Ori, I don't know what you gained, but I feel much different." Ori uses some of its energy and I start glowing brightly, the gap in my soul is filled with light, suddenly the light combusts and I create an explosion, a charged flame. "Of course! Charge flame, you can probably use that to destroy those walls we were dealing with before. Ori and I went off to the left wall, which had blue cracks in it and charged the light, suddenly seins charge cancelled. "What happened? Try again." Ori charged the light once more and once again the charge cancelled. "Hmm, maybe you are out of energy." I noticed a blue crystal on the ceiling. "Oh, here!" I popped the crystal with a spark flame and watched the crystal shard fall to the ground. Ori picked it up and it dissolved in its hand.

"Alright try now…" Ori charged up its light and then let go, and seins explosion obliterated the cracked wall. The corridor looked familiar, and I realized it was the one we traveled through before, we must not have noticed the wall though. We passed through and back up to the Spirit Tree. Upon re-entering the door leading to the Spirit Tree I noticed it, the creature lying on the spirit well, asleep. Ori saw it and readied itself, in the case of a fight. "Ori wait, this creature is….. Surprisingly different." Ori looked up at me with a confused face.

"Every creature… well MOST of the creatures in Nibel contain 'The Light' in their body, it is usually in small amounts though, and large amounts would easily kill or render any creature, except for you and me. We were born from the light, not only are we made of the light, the light is also the culmination of our soul, our spirit. This is the reason why the spirit wells can heal us, but any other creature standing on the well would be injured, but this creature is LYING on the well, sleeping. This creature isn't one of our kind, but its spirit surely resembles that of our own kind."

Ori looked ahead at it and started walking toward the creature. "Ori please be careful!" Ori approached the creature, which was a bit larger than Ori, but smaller than…. Naru. It had strange, colored wrappings on its arms, legs, and feet, perhaps some form of armor? Ori touched the armor, it felt soft. The chest armor was green with stripes and the leg armor was blue. The feet armor was black with a white bottom. How would this protect anyone, this armor is so thin. Ori touched the creature's skin. It was soft, and it had small, silky hairs on it, barely able to see. The creature slowly opened its eyes, and upon seeing Ori, it popped awake and fell off the well out of surprise. Out of fear of it harming Ori I launched one spark flame at it. Nothing, no effect, only knockback. "What are you, WHO are you?" I spouted at the creature. It looked at me and stammered. "U-uh, I-I, my name is-is… Zander." It said. It spoke some sort of foreign language, but it was completely identical to our own. "Zander… what are you?" I asked the creature. "I, I'm a human." What? What is a "human"? I was slowly beginning to realize this creature was not from Nibel, or from any of the neighboring areas. "What are you doing here, Zander?" I asked it calmly. "Well… I don't know, I was in my house… I was awoken by….. There was a light… and I touched it, and I woke up in this place." It stammered.

I thought to myself for a second. "Where are you from? What place? What forest?" I asked. "Forest? I don't come from a forest, I come from Florida." It said, extremely confused. I've never heard of "Florida" before in my entire life. I looked down at Ori and it had the same confusion I had. "Well, 'Zander' until we find out where you are from, do you want to come with us, you have a similar soul to mine and Ori's soul, and since you are not one of us, this means that you are extremely special. No creature has ever shared this same quality. Any creature that came in contact with this well would have become injured or rendered, but you were asleep on top of it, like it was any other rock, this is extremely unique for a creature other than our species." It seemed somewhat flattered that I said that, and nodded its head. "Sure I'll go with you, I don't have anywhere else to go now anyway." I looked to Ori for confirmation and it seemed more than happy to have "Zander" come with us. "Well I guess that's that, come on, it's getting dark, we should find or make shelter somewhere." I'm not sure how this will turn out, I know that this creature won't be able to be reborn at a soul link, I'm afraid something might happen him.


	12. First Night in Nibel

CHAPTER 11

THE FIRST NIGHT

Zander

I lie on the ground wide awake next to a blue fire, and a white, blueish creature, who is sound asleep. I don't know why, but I don't think this will be craziest thing I'm going to see while I'm here. The blue light, "Sein" as it is called is circling the area looking for… something. I'm not scared or homesick, worried or confused, I'm just wondering how this happened, and if this is a dream or not. From the looks of it, this IS a dream, there is no way that this "Ori" thing could exist, and the tree, it's completely impossible, but everything feels so… real, like this is real life, also, why would I be falling asleep in a dream? Once again, another reason why this isn't a dream. It confuses me knowing that THIS is a reality, this blue fire, this white creature, this blue orb, when in my reality, this wouldn't be possible. "So, Zander, you never really explained where you came from." Sein said. "Oh, um….. well I live on a place called 'Earth' which is a ball, suspended in nothing… this 'ball' is very large, and holds a lot of things called 'humans' on it. The humans build large structures to live and work in, it's a place where everyone has to contribute for it to function. We work to get 'money' a type of….. Leaf, which we exchange for food and water and other stuff." I explained it to Sein's intellectual level.

"Wait, why would you work for something, then give it away, so you can get food and water, why not get that stuff from the ground?" Sein asked. "Well, it's because our race… we tend to build too much stuff, and we are running out of space for food to grow. So we can't get food like that anymore." I said. "You sound like an interesting race of creatures." Sein said. "Well, our world is…. Corrupted, we tend to attack, punish or even kill our own kind if we do anything wrong, and if they don't kill us, they keep us secluded and solitary. All alone with nobody to talk to." I said. "Oh…. That sounds horrible….. Why would anyone do that?" Sein asked. "To keep the rest of us in check, to scare us into doing what we are supposed to do. We are at a point in time where it is too late to explore anything, but too early to explore the universe." I said, a lump building in my throat. "What is the 'universe'? Sein asked. "Oh, the universe is amazing. The ball we live on, Earth, is in something called the 'solar system', and we are kept warm and alive by the sun, the huge yellow circle in the sky, and in our solar system lies other worlds, with no life on it, we were the lucky world. But outside of the solar system, is the universe, millions and billions and trillions of times larger than our world, it's so big, that our minds cannot comprehend its size… It is practically infinite." I said eyes toward the sky.

"Wow… I wonder if we have a universe." Sein said with wonder. "Oh, you do, see those dots in the sky? Those are 'stars' they are just like the ball of light in the sky, except very far away, so who knows, there might be another world past this one." I said. "I…. I always wondered… what those were… The universe sounds like a wonderful place." Sein said. "Well, most of the universe is empty, you could travel in one direction for years, and yet you would never reach anything." I said. "Oh…. The universe SOUNDS like a large place. Has anyone in your world gone into the universe?" Sein asked. "Yes, about 20 or 30 times? We went to the 'moon' another ball close to ours, with no life on it. It was one of the coolest things at its time. Now we use tubes with clear things in it to see into the universe. Despite all of the emptiness of space, it really has some dazzling stuff in it." I said. "One day… I would like to see those things you speak of….. Well you better get some rest, we have a lot of things we are doing tomorrow." Sein said. I didn't bother to ask what we were doing, because I probably couldn't understand it. I lay my head down, and look at Ori. "Ori's a cute little creature, isn't it?" I asked Sein. "Yes, it sure is." Sein said quietly. I closed my eyes, and drifted to sleep, ready for the adventure planned tomorrow.


	13. First Day in Nibel

CHAPTER 12

FIRST DAY IN NIBEL

Zander

I woke abruptly to shouting, Sein was telling us to get up, morning already? "Alright I'm getting up fine." I said loudly, not moving. Sein shot a bolt at me, it didn't hurt, but it shocked me. "Agh, fine I'm up I'm up!" I yelled to Sein, she was impatient. I looked down and Ori was asleep, head and body against mine, it's warm, like a heater, but I am in another world, so I'm going to assume it's normal. Ori barely opened its eyes and sat up, yawning and stretching its arms. The yawn caught me with its contagiousness, and I also yawn. "Oh come on, you can't be THAT tired! You slept for 6 hours!" Sein said, sounding like my mom. "6 HOURS, humans need about 8 hours of sleep just to function properly!" I said back to sein. "Well I'm sorry, but we have a forest to save, and not much time, come on lets go, we need to head through the deeper parts of the Sunken Glades, through the Thornfelt Swamp, and then to the Moon Grotto. It's going to take a couple hours, and since I don't know the limits of your mobility, time may vary." Sein said. It sounds like she's reading locations from a Legends of Zelda game.

"Ok fine, where and how will we get to those places?" I asked, while Ori fell forward, falling back asleep. "Well, to get there, there will be a lot of climbing, and we may have to pass through Spider Caves." Sein said. I feel an anxiety attack coming on. "Spider….. Caves? Actual spiders? Are you serious?" I asked. I have a limitless fear of spiders, its bad, if there is a spider cave, I don't want to know about the spiders that exist in THIS world. "Yes, but they aren't that bad, they are pretty big though, about the size of Ori?" Sein said. I looked at Ori and almost fainted, that is MORE than HALF the size of my body, and those are big spiders. "Well, you can protect us right? You have that… Electric thingy you do, you can kill them?" I asked quickly. "Well, the Spark Flame is an upgraded version of the Spirit Flame, and the Spirit Flame is strong enough by itself, and that combined with the Charge Flame we just got, it should be no problem, and that reminds me, Ori do you have any Spirit Cells yet? We have killed plenty of creatures on the way here." Sein said. Ori thought for a second, and then stood in the blue flame, and closed its eyes. Suddenly Ori's body glowed brightly for a second then dimmed back down.

"What just happened?" I asked Sein. "Ori used something called a "Spirit Cell", a refined light to improve one of mine or its own abilities, Ori used on to give me Spark Flame before, but Ori used this one to attract Spirit Light to it, which will make it easier for Ori to get more light for improvements later in time, but there is a small problem, the more Spirit Cells Ori gets, the more light Ori will need to get a Cell, so it will take a while to get more Cells over time." Sein said to me. I thought about it and it seemed like it would be a cool mechanic in a video game, like an upgrading system. "Ok well, shouldn't we get going? We've been standing here talking, we have stuff we need to do!" I said with determination. "Well, OK then, let's get going, we DO have a long way to go until we get to the Ginso Tree, and even then, I'm not sure if the Water Vein will still be there. But before we head that way, I want to test a theory." Sein said. Sein started floating down the path I came from, and Ori and I followed.

We kept walking until we got to the mouth of a small, sinkhole like cavern. Sein and Ori jumped into it and I slowly slid down into it. We got to the bottom and I followed until we got to a small, strange tree, with holes all over it. "Zander, this is an Ancestral Tree, the remnants of our kind when they die. Their spirit and light are made into a tree like this, which others can use to gain their abilities for their use. See, Ori didn't ORIGINALLY have the ability to climb or use Charge Flame, but we got them from absorbing the light from these. Since you have the soul of a spirit guardian, I think you to could gain that ability to, so we can speed up the process of getting around Nibel." Sein explained.

I looked at the tree and slowly walked towards it, suddenly small tendrils of light rushed towards me and went into my skin, absorbing it into my body. Sein and Ori watched, obvious awe coming from its facial expression. The light stopped flowing and I passed out. I woke up next to the tree, lying on the ground. "H-how long was I out?" I asked quietly. "Only a couple of seconds, I'm sorry, I should have known something weird would happen." Sein said sadly. "No, no, it's fine, I feel a bit light headed, but I'm fine!" I said to Sein. Ori stood next to her looking worried. "Well, you did absorb the light, which means you most likely have the ability to climb, try it." Sein said. I stood up and walked up to the closest wall to my left and jumped up and tried to grab the wall and fell back down. I stood up and looked at Sein. "Try again, you can do it!" Sein said enthusiastically. I turned back to the wall, took a deep breath, ran towards it and jumped onto it, and I didn't fall. "Oh, you're doing great, reach the top!" Sein said. Ori was bouncing up and down excitedly. I put one hand further up the wall, and dug my hands and fingers into the rock, as if there were holes there for my fingers, and pulled myself up higher. I sped up and got to the top in no time. "That was great! Now we know that you and Ori both have the ability to gain other guardians skills! This should make this journey so much easier!" Sein said sounding ecstatic. We went back to the mouth of the cave, where Ori and I climbed up the wall to the top. I was getting used to my newfound ability. This is so cool, I can go practically anywhere now!

We headed back to the spirit tree and went past it to a smaller tree with vertical platforms hanging from it. Ori jumped on the tree and started climbing up and I followed it, jumping from the tree to the hanging walls and back, moving towards the top of it. Atop the tree was a large, pink spiked creature, which Sein took care of quickly. When the creature died, it split into two, smaller creatures. "What? I don't… how did it…" Sein stuttered. Sein shot more Sparks and after multiple attacks and splits, the creature was finally dead. "I don't understand, what kind of self-defense attempt was that? Sure it could be useful for lesser creatures and lone guardians, but why wouldn't they evolve better abilities?" Sein said. My stomach growled loudly, I realized that I'm very hungry. Ori looked at me weirdly. "What, I'm hungry!" I said. "Oh, I think I know locations of fruit bearing trees, they also don't need water to survive!" Sein said. "Yeah, but I need water to survive." I said. "And the water here is purple, probably poisoned." I added. "The fruits contain hydrating fluids in them, and some cupped leaves contain fresh water from recent rain storms." Sein said. "Well I hope you're right, because I need food. Soon." I said.


	14. The Gumon

CHAPTER 13

THE GUMON

Sein

I floated above Ori as we walked through the Thornfelt Swamp, the sound of Zander munching on fruit behind us was audible. "Jeez, I don't know what this is, but I could totally live off it, it's so good!" Zander said sounding happy. "Well, you kind of HAVE to, until we find other food." I said sarcastically. Zander rolled his eyes and kept on chewing. We kept walking until we saw it, the Ginso Tree. "Ori there it is, we just have to make it to the top and restore the Element of Waters." I said. We walked up to the tree and we saw a creature, a member of the Gumon to be exact, and he was holding the Water Vein in its grasp. It saw us and panicked, moving away as fast as it could, holding the heavy crystal. "No! It got away with the Water Vein!" I said trying to go after it. "What's so important about it?" Zander asked.

"It's the key, the thing that keeps the door open, if it's removed, the door to the Ginso Tree is closed. We have to go after it." I said. "GUUH, going here was a really big challenge for me, and I can ONLY assume it's going to get harder." Zander whined. Ori looked up at Zander with a face I can only describe as complete confusion. "Well we have to, sure Ori and I won't die from starvation or sickness, YOU certainly can, the fruit bearing trees could die at any time from the creatures living here, that will eventually lead to your death." I said bluntly. I felt kind of bad for saying it, but I had to prove a point. Ori was shocked, it had never seen me act like that before. "Well, putting it that way, I guess you're right, but I'm not as agile and quick as Ori is, and that could hold you back or kill me!" Zander said concerning. "You won't hold us back, we'll move slowly." I said. We followed the Gumon and it lead to a pit, which we saw him standing next to. He just smiled at us and jumped down holding the Water Vein above his head.

We went to the pit and it was pretty deep, but we could see the bottom. Plenty of other creatures down there, they looked strange, and protruded from the ground. One saw me and vomited a glowing pink projectile at me, which I quickly dodged, but it left a pink mass where it landed. "What was that?" Zander asked. "I don't know, I have never seen any of these creatures before in my life." I replied. Ori looked over the edge and gestured me to go down there, presumably to use a Charge Flame. I dashed down and lit myself up, and combusted, obliterating the creatures instantly. They slumped over and disintegrated. Ori hopped down the large hole, and Zander slid down a vine, and shook the rope burn off his hands when he got off.

We continued into the cave to our left and we were greeted by another pink multiplying creature. After a minute or so of shooting flames it was reduced to nothing, just more spirit light, which Ori took in the light and created an explosion of light, another ability to gain. Ori made a Soul Link and sat down. Suddenly I felt different, a part of me was enhanced. The Charge Flame was made even stronger. Ori got back up and rekindled the flame of the Soul Link. "Dang, I'll never get used to that." Zander said softly. We continued through the cave and came upon an opening. There was another creature, but we were too focused on the fast moving creature behind it. It was the Gumon! It went into a narrow pathway and a door closed behind it as it entered, leaving us unable to get in. "Wait, look at the door, it looks weak, there are holes all over it… maybe one of the projectiles from these things can break the wall?" Zander said. That may be the first smart thing he has said. Ori looked down and saw a fragile tree, and jumped on it, gesturing to the other creature to shoot at it. The creature saw Ori and as soon as it vomited another projectile, Ori jumped out of the way, breaking the tree, and revealing another creature. "We could break all of these things, and leave one to possibly be close enough to the wall to launch a projectile and break it!" I said enthusiastically. After a couple minutes of jumping and dodging, Ori finally got one of the creatures to destroy the wall. Ori walked through the door, and Zander and I followed. "Let's hope we don't have to continue being this strenuous for things such as doors." I said. "Oh so YOU get to complain, but I can't?" Zander said sarcastically. "Well, I also have to work hard, not like you don't, you have a hard time getting around as it is…" We walked until we got to our destination… The Moon Grotto.


	15. Through my Eyes

CHAPTER 14

THROUGH HIS EYES

Spirit Tree

 **Sein guides my child through the perilous forest. Ever since the forest turned blind, ever since Kuro stole my eyes, the forest has grown dark. The boy, the creature following Ori and Sein, he shouldn't be here, not in this forest. He traveled the dimensional path to this world. He isn't of my kind, but his soul is as pure as Ori's. I gave Ori my light to take and revive the forest, but this creature shares this light. He must have gained my light somehow. This creature traveled between dimensions using the** _ **Spirit Portal,**_ **but they have not opened in several millennia. He must be important to this world, the last time the Spirit Portal opened, it introduced the** _ **Steel,**_ **the first metal ever discovered in this world. Completely moldable by the hands of light, but completely unbendable and indestructible against anything else. The Gumon used this steel in their creations, but couldn't use it unless they had a guardian spirit around to help them bend it. The portal hasn't opened since, until this creature came. The creature was weak, and frail, unlike my child. He could never fend for himself. This Steel will help this creature, I must use the last of my light and present it to him. Ori and Sein are with him, they will help him bend it, make armor from it, he will survive this place, I'm sure of it.**


	16. In Ori's Eyes

CHAPTER 15

IN ORI'S EYES

Ori

Walking, running, jumping, climbing, all of it isn't actually as tiring as I thought it would be. I have all of this pent up energy, and I just can't release it. Sein is really nice, I wouldn't be able to fend for myself in this place, but she takes care of me. This other thing, "Zander" he seems nice. He has been with us since we found him a day ago, and he still has no idea where he is. I wonder where he's from. Where are the rest of his kind, and why is he here? I don't have a problem with him being here, it's nice to have someone to see, that's not a floating orb or a monster. He and Sein speak different languages, but they sound so similar. They can say the same sentence and it will sound so different, but it is almost the exact same sounding. It's weird, but oddly natural. I suddenly stop walking and my focus goes back to the real world. Zander's hand is against my chest holding me back. In front of me is a small drop, and a large laser protruding from the thing I was standing on. If I had walked any further, I would have died right then and there. "Ori you need to be more careful, we can't afford to be reckless in a time like this!" Sein said to me. I nodded my head and stepped back. "This laser, it shuts off and turns on every now and then. About 3 second intervals. This is a dead end but there is a drop at the end of the laser, which will be extremely hard to get to without dying." Zander explained.

I focused and created a soul link, just to be safe. I wouldn't want to end up back where I created the last one, which is probably pretty far from here, besides I didn't want to experience death for a third time anyway. "So, what is with that blue fire that Ori makes? It has absolutely no heat to it, but it releases light, and they make it out of nothing." Zander asked. "That is called a soul link. It is the essence of a guardian spirit's soul, made into a spark, leading to a flame. It is extremely easy to do, but requires "Energy" to make. Energy is the amalgamation of the light from creatures, that aren't guardian spirits, but contain light. This also includes trees and anything living. The light from their bodies come together into crystals known as energy crystals. They can be absorbed by guardian spirits." Sein explained. She noticed there was a large collection of energy crystals on the ceiling. "Why don't you try to absorb them?" Sein said, and shot a spark flame at the crystal, shattering it. I shielded my head with my hands and the crystals fell down next to me. I looked back up and glared at Sein, who noticed my sour look. "Oh calm down, they would have immediately absorbed into your skin, I wouldn't have hurt." Sein said.

Zander walked up to the crystals and put his hand down to them. The crystals moved to his hands and disappeared into them. A second later his hand flashed and the crystal shot out. "What? I had it, what happened?" Zander asked. "You don't have any energy cells, I didn't think about that part. You are able to absorb the shards but you can't retain them, so we need to get you some energy cells… IF you want to, I don't see what reason you would need to retain energy, but it could come into use later." Sein said. I decided I would just go and they could catch up. I watched the pattern of the laser and jumped a second before it deactivated. It turned off at the perfect time and I slid down into the hole, landing on a platform hanging off of the wall. "Oh my god, Ori are you alright?! Say something!" Zander yelled. I didn't know how to talk but I let out a small shout, trying to make sure I sounded like I was OK. Sein appeared over me saw that I was OK. "Ori is alright, you should try to do the same thing they did, just go as fast as you can." Sein said. "Are you serious?! I'll die if I touch that thing!" Zander yelled at Sein, sounding unsure of her plan.

"Don't worry Zander, just trust your body, you can jump far and run fast, you can make it!" Sein said trying to calm and convince Zander as much as she could. "OK, I'll try…" Zander says quivering anxiously. I poke my head out enough where the laser won't hit my head and I can see him. He takes some steps back and watches the pattern of the laser. He waits for the right moment and begins to sprint as fast as he can. My heartbeat gets really funny, what am I feeling? He gets to the end of the rock and then he jumps.


	17. Second Night

CHAPTER 16

SECOND NIGHT

Zander

Here we are again, sitting near another blue fire, but this time in the "Moon Grotto". I don't have any clue what this place is, but we're here. I'm lying on the ground with Ori up against my side, sound asleep. Sein is once again floating around, probably protecting us, this place is full of crazy creatures. I want to get up and stretch, I am in an uncomfortable position, but I don't want to wake Ori, it look like they're comfortable. I put my hand on Ori's head. It feels so smooth, like polished glass. Ori lets out a cute yawn, and I can't help but smile. I shift my weight to make myself more comfortable, but not enough to wake Ori, and I wince. My right shoulder has a nasty burn on it. When I went to the platform Ori was on, below the rock, I slid to avoid the laser and slow myself down, as to not overshoot the platform, and the laser turned back on as I was in descent toward the platform. It didn't hit me, but I was close enough that the heat let out burned my shoulder. I can still move it but it hurts quite a bit. When I hit the ground I usually roll, to distribute shock through my body, and back into the ground, as to not shatter my legs and spine. I always roll using my right side, and since my right shoulder is burned, I'm going to have to change the way I do it, maybe even using the left side of my body. Sein noticed I had the burn as soon as I landed on the platform, that's how I found out I was burned. It didn't hurt at first but minutes later it felt like knives grinding against my shoulder. I was in a lot of pain, but Sein offered a way to heal me. She knew of another Spirit Well near where we were and we went to the location. We found the Well and we went to heal myself, and it worked, but I still feel pain, just nowhere near as bad as it was. A flash of light deep in the Grotto catches my attention, and Sein stops moving. "Did… Did you see that?" I ask quietly. "I saw it. Come with me, and stay quiet." Sein said.

I slowly got up with hands under Ori's head and I slowly set its head down on a rolled up bag I have, to act as a pillow. I make sure Ori is still asleep and we head into the Grotto. "Do you have any idea what that could have been?" I asked. "It could have been anything, but the flash was bright blueish, it maybe had something to do with our light… who knows what it is." Sein said. We turn a corner and we see it, a block of some metal. Well it's more of an ingot. It was glowing and had a bright, tinny color to it. "That… No, it can't… What is that doing here?" Sein said, sounding surprised. "What. What is it?" I asked. "That there, is a bar of something known by our kind as 'Kharatic Steel' or just as 'The Steel'. It never existed in our world until it came through the Spirit Portal, a stone doorway that appears and disappears every hundred years or so. Last time it came a hundred years ago, this metal came out of it. A large amount. The Gumon found these ingots, but couldn't shape them, but a spirit guardian found one, and bent it with barely any resistance. They brought it back to the tree and we found out that creatures made of 'The Light' could bend this steel. The Gumon caught wind of this and asked for some of it and help from the guardians to shape it. Eventually they used it all up in their creations, which wasn't a problem, since we had no use for it. The metal is absolutely indestructible to anything, but the spirit guardians can bend it with little effort." Sein explained, giving me a headache. Something touched my leg, startled I looked down. Ori was standing next to me. We must have woken them up while we were talking. "Ori! Perfect timing, see that metal there? Guardian Spirits can mold it with their hands, try to make something with it." Sein said. Ori walked up to the metal and picked it up, with little resistance, must be light weight. Ori put its other hand on it and bent it without any problem. Ori found this fun to do, and began playing with it, making all kinds of shapes, like play-doe. "Ori, this metal is easy to bend by Guardian Spirits, but for everything else, it is absolutely indestructible, so we can use this to give Zander an advantage here!" Sein said. "So Zander, this metal is going to you, the Spirit Tree must have put it here for a reason, what do you want? We only have this one bar, so choose wisely." Sein said. I would LIKE a sword or armor, but I have major trouble maneuvering around this place, so maybe a whip or grapple hook? "I think a grapple hook device would help me a lot. Like a gauntlet that I can use to shoot a rope or wire that I can swing on." I said. "OK, I will help Ori make it, it will take a while, but it will be done by morning time." Sein said. Ori DEFINITELY didn't like the idea of being up all night, but they knew it is what's necessary for us to continue. We headed back to camp with the metal and I put my head down on the rolled up bag. Sein immediately began discussing with Ori on how they were going to make this device. I had no idea how this was going to work, but they look like they know what they're doing. I closed my eyes and began thinking about what lies at the end of my journey. I don't want to leave this place. I don't want to leave this place, it is dangerous, but it's so calming and nice. My eyes water up… I open them and look at Ori and Sein. They are already working on the grapple hook. I don't want to leave Ori, I care about it. I don't even know if Ori is a he or she. It seems so mean to call Ori an "it". I close my eyes once more, and let images of big adventures fill my head, and I fall asleep… feeling happy.


	18. Getting Around

CHAPTER 17

GETTING AROUND

Zander

I awaken suddenly, again, for no reason. I never have bad dreams, or dreams for that matter, I haven't since I got here, but I still awaken as if I am having nightmares. I turn my body over to see how the hook is coming along. Ori is on the ground asleep with its mouth ajar. Must have been a rough night. Sein is finishing the last touches to the hook. I look at the hook and it looks…. Awesome. It looks like the gauntlet from Bioshock, without the grinding thingy… I have never really played Bioshock, but I have seen the gauntlet thingy. The hook has an outer shell that looks like it will fit my arm perfectly. It extends to what looks to be the curve of my shoulder, and has a joint system for my elbow, and my shoulder. How did they do all of this in one night? I get up and walk towards Sein, making sure not to step on Ori, who looks like it is in the most comfortable sleep of its entire life, despite its face being directly on the ground. Sein sees me approach and looks exited to tell me about her creation, as am I.

"Zander, I think you are going to be really excited about what me and Ori made! We spent a lot of time on it and made sure it worked properly. And with the light you have within your body, it should work really well. It's also designed to fit to the wearer's arm perfectly." Sein said. I pick up the long hook and put my right arm into it, and it shrinks down an inch to fit my arm. It has some kind of padding inside of it, made of some woven plant substance… it's really comfortable. "The hook and the wire that shoots out of the gauntlet are both extremely sharp, and can puncture about anything it hits. You can also use the wire and hook as a weapon if you needed to. For the time being we only had enough for one hook shot, if we're lucky we may be able to get another bar, but I wouldn't lean on that assumption." Sein said. I bent and extended my elbow to check how the gear moved. It glided with absolutely no resistance. It was perfect. "You are a completely primitive species and never even heard of technology, and yet you managed to build me a hook shot… I didn't expect it to be this nice! How did you manage this?" I said. "You don't have any idea how much I know. The Spirit Tree is considered a God in our world, and I am the Eye of that deity. He shares a lot of information he gets with me. When I needed to build this, I went back on what the Spirit Tree told me about the Gumons inventions. Using all of the information that they built with, I made this!" Sein said.

I stuck my arm out and a grip extended out of the gauntlet below my hand, some spring loaded mechanism? I grabbed the grip and felt a trigger on my index and middle finger. "You have to focus your light and press the trigger in order to shoot the hook. It runs off of light from the Spirit Tree, the light you also have in your body." Sein explained. I focused and pressed the trigger, and the hook sprung to life, shooting out quickly and lodging itself in the wall adjacent to me. It had some knockback, but it worked really well. "This is crazy, I had no idea you could build these contraptions!" I said. "Well neither did I, I never really had to until now, but I really enjoy it!" Sein replied. The commotion woke Ori, who had been sleeping through everything so far. They seemed upset that we woke them, since they didn't get much sleep that night. Ori pulled their head up to reveal a long red mark on their forehead, where their head was laying on the ground. "Ori… your head." Sein said. Ori felt their forehead and began rubbing it, to remove the irritation. How long did it take you to make this, and how long has Ori slept for?" I asked. "Um…. It took about 9 hours to make the grappling hook, and Ori slept for about 3 hours. So maybe we should rest for a bit? You can mess around with your hook for the time being." Sein said. 3 hours? Dang, I didn't want to take away their sleeping time, but if it's necessary, I guess its ok. I liked the idea of being able to use my hook for a bit and nodded at the idea. Ori lie down on my sleeping area and immediately fell asleep and I walked off to find an area to use my hook. While I was walking I noticed that the shoulder piece of the hook made a shell around my shoulder burn to protect it, so that's cool. I'm glad that they thought about it.

I walked until I came across a small pit, and at the bottom, I saw that "Gumon" guy with the blue crystal. I knew we needed it so I acted, and began moving down the pit. "H-hey! Get back here, stop running!" I shouted. I slipped down the pit and lowered myself with the hook, which proved extremely useful. I landed and retracted the hook and continued moving towards him. I saw him at the end of a small opening, and I started running after him, across a wooden floor. "HEY, give that back, you're making this so much harder than you need to!" I yelled. The creature pulled a switch and the floor was pulled from underneath me. Suspended in the air, unmoving for a small time, I looked down, and panicked. NOTHING, it went for hundreds if not THOUSANDS of feet down, and I began to fall. I attempted to use my hook to shoot the wall. Nothing happened. "OH COME ON, NOT NOW!" I kept trying to no avail. I looked down to see the ground rapidly approaching. With my last breath I yelled. "ORI, SEIN, HELP M-" and then… blackness…


	19. What is this?

CHAPTER 18

WHAT… IS THIS

Zander

"What is his condition?"

"I don't know, all of these injuries keep appearing, the most recent is a large burn, extending from the top of his right shoulder to the middle of his back"

"Any others since my last visit?"

"No just these… wait… he… his legs, they are bruising. Put this in the log, another injury, this I the first time I've witnessed one of his injuries happening out of thin air… we can remove the possibility of physical abuse, his injuries aren't happening here… how interesti-"

"DOCTOR, how is he!?"

"Oh… Mrs. Osborn… Zander is doing fine but… well."

"Wh-what?"

"Well I regret to inform you of this but… he isn't appearing to get any better… and I don't think he'll awaken… If I were you I would recommend pulling the plug, and cutting off life support, to prevent him from suffering any longer…"

"What did you say? WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST SAY?!"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you-"

"MY SON WILL STAY ON LIFE SUPPORT UNTIL HE WAKES UP, I PAYED YOU THE MONEY, HE WILL STAY HERE UNTIL HE WAKES UP, EVEN IF IT MEANS BEING HERE FOR TWENTY YEARS!"

"Y-yes, I understand Mrs. Osborn… he will remain here until he wakes up."

"Good…"

"…. Damnit, his life signs are going insane, get the defibrillator!"

"Zander, come on, wake up, don't die on me… WAKE UP!"


	20. Gumo's Hideout

CHAPTER 19

GUMO'S HIDEOUT

Zander

"WAKE UP ZANDER! WAKE UP!" Sein yells. My eyes slowly open. I'm in so much pain from my waist down. I look up to see Sein above me. "Oh my god, ZANDER, I thought we lost you!" Sein said. I looked right to see Ori standing next to me, eyes full of tears. "God I'm so sorry… I saw him… with the crystal, and I tried to go after him but…. Well, as you can see I… fell down." I said weakly. "You were led into a trap... the Gumon are sly, crafty creatures, you fell about 300 feet. You're lucky you aren't dead." Sein said. Ori ran over and hugged me around the neck. Tears fell on my shoulder. "Ah, I know I know… I'm sorry I worried you… I promise I'll be more careful." I said. I put my hand on Ori's quivering head. My hook isn't on my arm. "Hey, where's my hook at?" I asked. "It fell off… It's over here, its fine but it is pretty scratched up." Sein said. I remembered what happened to the hook during the fall. "Hey, while I was falling, the hook stopped working… What happened?" I asked. "Oh… the light, the thing that propels the hook, it is a spiritual energy, you need to be calm and happy while using it… when you were falling you must have been distressed, causing it not to work." Sein said. I sat silent for a moment in Ori's embrace. "Wh…. Where are we?" I ask. "We are in Gumo's hideout. The pit you went down must have been a shortcut to it." Sein said.

"Well… I won't be able to move for a bit, I think my legs are broken… Is there a way to fix them?" I ask. "The only way to fix you is to get Life Shards or find a Spirit Well… but… I don't detect any of them around here, so we are just going to have to find Life Shards, which could take a while." Sein said. Ori immediately let go and shot off into the caves. "Ori! Slow down!" Sein said, shooting after them. I let my head fall back down and I take a deep breath. I attempt to move my legs, and that fills me with excruciating pain. My breathing gets funny and I stop. Shit, I'm stuck here for now and I'm completely vulnerable! I think about Ori and how they made soul links, to keep them safe and heal them. I close my eyes and clear my mind… and focus. My body lights up but I keep going. I'm pulling light from all around me, focusing it into myself. I have to do this! I keep focusing until finally my body is engulfed in a warm, white flame. I open my eyes and look around. Nothing was alerted by my lightshow and I lie my head back down.

My body is slowly healing, the crackling and shifting under the skin in my legs is evidence of that. My legs start to take the form of normal legs. I can't believe this is working! My legs take form and stop moving, and stops making noise. I move my legs, with no pain. I push myself off of the ground and stand up. "Ori, Sein, my legs healed, I made a Soul Link!" I yelled. No reply. They must be too far away to hear me. I walk over to my hook shot and reattach it to my arm. It shrinks down to fit my arm and I do a couple practice shots. It's working again, and I hope it stays that way. I have no idea where I am so I assess the situation. I'm on a long skinny natural bridge in the middle of a lake underground. To my left there are spikes, and to my right, there are still spikes, but not as many. Behind me is a stone structure, with many markings on it. I have no idea what it could be, so I just head to the area where there aren't as many spikes, Ori HAD to have gone this way… I just hope they're OK.


	21. Inspiriting

CHAPTER 20

INSPIRITING

Ori

Oh my god! This place is full of traps and defenses. If something here isn't moving or trying to crush you, it's covered in spikes, SOMETIMES BOTH. Sein has been a really big help with protecting me, I can't focus on all these things at once, so it's nice to not have to worry about killing things. I couldn't muster up the will to kill anything anyways, I would just feel so bad. So far we have gone down multiple areas but they are all really dangerous, so we decided on a path downwards through this cave. It has crushing stones, but they are easy to avoid, just don't stand in one area to long. I hop down from boulder to moving boulder until I get to one that is different. One area has a platform with a map stone fragment on it, and the other has a walkway with an enemy on it. I quickly decide to go to the platform to get the map stone fragment, so I can learn my way around here. I then jump over to the rock wall and jump up to the top of it, and get over as fast as I can, nearly crushing myself. I fall down to the bottom of the wall, with the walkway above me. I jam my fingers into the rock wall as hard as I can, leaving about a foot of space between me and the spikes below me. My heart is about to explode, all of this is really getting to me, if only Kuro didn't attack the tree, I could still be living in the cave and eating fruit with…. Her. My heart starts hurting, I shouldn't have started thinking, because it always ends back at this. I slowly make my way up the wall to the platform, the enemy is gone, I guess Sein took care of it while I was below.

I pull myself up and lie down… I think this would be a good place to make a Soul Link. I sit and concentrate, making another bluish-white flame. "Ori, how much spirit light do you have?" Sein asks. I didn't realize until now that I had a large storage of refined light in me. I close my eyes and strengthen as much as I can. Sein, my strength, my abilities, all of it. I didn't get to many improvements, but it was progress. I don't know what is what when I do this and I only find out after I improve it. Sein got a stronger attack, and I will get healed more when I make a soul link. Nothing really significant. I get back on my feet and continue down the hallway. It ends in a large room, and Gumo is in the center. He is stomping his feet on the ground for some reason and he dashes away into the door in the back of the room, and it closes behind him. Suddenly a large creature shoots out of the ground and fires a projectile from its mouth, and falls back into the floor as if it was water. The projectile landed just at my feet and makes a small spiked boil on the ground. "Ori be careful, this one is different, and it's not bound to one area like the others." Sein said.

Walk over to the ledge and slowly slide down the wall and land quietly…. I don't hear anything. I take a step and the ground beneath me crumbles. The creature shoots out from under me and hits me hard, knocking the wind out of me. Sein shoots over and fires bolts of electricity at the creature, but it doesn't seem fazed by this. It flies over me to do one last strike to kill me, but I roll out of the way as it descends and sinks into the floor. "Ori this thing is too strong, my attacks don't affect it!" Sein shouted. The ground under me crackles once again. I'm so weak I can't muster up the strength to get away. The monster shoots up under me again and knocks me into the air, but misses the projectile. I slam into the floor across the room as the monster disappears underground once again. "ORI!" Sein shouts. I get all the strength I can and walk a couple steps as the monster shoots up behind me. I collapse on the ground and the monster fires another projectile. "This is it." I thought. "I have to through this once again." Suddenly the projectile explodes in midair and the monster is ripped from above me. I open my eyes to see Zander, viciously attacking the creature with his hook. He looks so aggressive, I've never seen him like this. Then I see it. His eyes are full of tears…. He's crying…. Why? He is such a brave creature… He strikes the final blow on the downed creature and slowly sits down. I carefully get up and move towards him. I approach him and set my hand on his shoulder. He turns his head towards my direction. His eyes are puffy, and his face is wet with tears.

"I'm so sorry I couldn't be here sooner, you were so close to being killed. All of this is my fault." Zander said, sobbing. I don't know what to do… so I just hug him… I want him to know that its ok, I need to… I have to say something I don't care how hard it is I need to! So I muster up my strength and tell him. "I… it's … ok… it's….. no… t…. Your…. Fault…." I say to Zander. His eyes open up a bit wider and he starts to cry even more. I didn't mean to make him cry even more, I feel terrible. Then he says it. "Ori… I'm so scared… I don't belong here…. You can survive, you're strong, but what you die… what if I die…. I'll never get out of here… I'll never be remembered… The forest will never be saved… you, me, Sein, the Spirit Tree, we will all wither away if we don't fix this." Zander said. I don't know what to do… I don't know what to do… "Don't worry… You'll be fine….. You'll go back home…. I'll go back home…. The forest will be fixed… And maybe one day, after all of this is over…. I could go to your world." I say to him. Neither of us know what to do now, and Sein has no idea what to say, so we just sit there in each-others embrace… and for once….. I truly feel happy….


	22. Lets be Friends

CHAPTER 21

LETS BE FRIENDS

Zander

"This doesn't look safe!" Sein said, sounding like my mother. Ori and I were standing on a ledge and below us, was about a hundred feet or so of spikes. Ahead of us, were walls moving up and down. Every now and then a walkway would come into view at the end of this place. "Oh come on, Ori and I just got the ability to double jump from the Ancestral Tree before and we are much more agile now! Just give us a break!" I said to Sein. "Uh, NO, I'm here to protect Ori and this is extremely dangerous!" Sein yelled back. "Oh well, I guess we just give up now." I said to Ori. Ori nodded their head, playing along. "WHA- NO, why don't we just try to find another way?" Sein said, trying to convince us. But Ori was too eager to try out the double jump ability they got, and I feel the same way. We were both in midair moving towards the wall and we both shot up as if we jumped off of another platform, latching onto the wall. I felt like we were in a circus act. "See, we're fine!" I said. As soon as the wall stopped moving upward, we slid off and moved toward the next wall. I came up short, but my hook fixed that, while Ori made it to the wall just fine. I may need more practice. After a minute or so of repeating actions we finally got to the other side. When we landed we both fell to the floor, trying to catch our breath. Sein flew over the spikey chasm, and over to us. "ORI, ZANDER, ARE YOU OK, ARE YOU HURT?!" Sein shouted. "SEIN, jeez! You are sounding more and more like my mother every day!" I said to Sein. Sein didn't understand what that meant, but was irritated anyway. Ori lit up and made a soul link, so I decided to do the same.

Concentrating with every fiber of my body, I lit up and a white flame formed, surrounding me. "WHAT? Zander, you didn't say you could do that!" Sein said. Ori looked equally shocked. "Oh, I made one while you were trying to find a way to fix my legs, and that's how I got here without your help." I said. I noticed that my soul link and Ori's soul link looked kind of different. Mine was white, while Ori's was bright, bright blue. "Ours… look kinda different…" I said. "Well, every guardian spirit has the ability to make a soul link, but the shade of it is determined on the soul of the creator. Very bright blue and white means the creator has a pure soul, which is really saying something, blue and purple means the soul is neutral, and red… well, it doesn't matter, all that matters is that you and Ori are extremely similar in soul." Sein said. I was kind of curious about what Sein was talking about, but I didn't want to get to far into it.

"Welp, we better get moving." I said, and I push myself off of the ground. I began walking down the path to an opening. Ori followed behind me. In the back of the area, I saw the Gumon running into another pathway. "Hey, over there! The Gumon guy!" I yelled. Ori and Sein immediately acted and rushed towards him, and I ran after them. Through the pathway was an opening to a tall room, with a strange shape. I notice the Gumon up at the top of the room on a ledge pulling at a lever that seems stuck. The lever, finally gives way and he falls backwards, breaking a support pillar, and a boulder falls on his legs trapping him. Ori noticed this to, and began making their way up the room, and I went along with them. I noticed something moving above us, and it was getting bigger, and then it flew past us. Rocks, tons of them in varying sizes. Ori and I had trouble dodging them, but I had more of a problem doing it, Ori was much more agile.

I latched onto a wall and shot my hook at one of them and swung it out of the way. That's it, I can use my hook to move them out of the way, to keep Ori safe. Ori ascended the room, and I followed moving slower than Ori. Rocks kept on falling, there was no end to it! After some collisions and mistakes, we finally got to the top of the room, and to where the Gumo guy was. Ori immediately rushed to the boulder and began pulling at it, to set them free. I began to help also, and within a couple of seconds, he had pulled himself out, and begun crawling away. Ori went after them but stopped after a couple of steps and shouted out to them. I walked up to Ori and we began walking in that direction. When we turned the corner, we saw the Gumon with the Water Vein. He pushed it towards us, smiled, and jumped away. It stopped rolling a couple of feet from us, almost begging us to pick it up. Ori walked up to it, and picked it up, but could tell that they couldn't carry that thing all the way back to the Ginso Tree. "Ori, I'll hold it." I said, holding my makeshift bag open. Ori walked up and dropped the large crystal into the bag, and I closed it. "Well… off to the Ginso Tree I guess." I said.


	23. The Ginso Tree

CHAPTER 22

THE GINSO TREE

Zander

Here we are, under the ginormous Ginso Tree… I've only seen the outside and I'm curious at what the inside looks like. "Has it gotten bigger?" I ask. Ori shrugs, I'm sure they're just as curious as what the inside looks like as I am. I pull the large crystal out of my bag and push it into the spherical indention in the big round door and it springs to life, turning and grinding open. It stops, revealing the inside of the rotting tree. Ori is the first to step in, and looks around the tree. It is just as large on the inside, with platforms hanging by vines growing uncontrollably on the walls and ceiling. There are spikes littering almost every surface. I look to my left and see a round opening leading to a large room, and it hits me. The room I'm looking into is geometrically impossible. I step out of the tree and look at where the room would be, and there is nothing there, just a wall. I step back inside the large tree. "Ori, that room, it shouldn't be there, the tree doesn't extend that far… I'm gonna check it out." I say. "Please be careful, even I haven't been in here before, so I don't know the layout of it." Sein says.

I notice there is a gap between me and the walkway with a spikey floor separating us, but I can make the jump. I step back and jump over the gap and stand in the walkway, which is only about 3 feet long. Outside of the walkway is a hanging platform, which I jump on, causing it to swing back and forth. I look down and see Ori and Sein looking through a walkway. Strange. I turn back around and see Ori and Sein still looking at me. I went through a wormhole. I look back down to Ori who is below me. "Ori up here!" I shout. Ori turns and sees me above them. They make a couple double takes, back and forth from me, to the portal, and also understand the anomaly. They jump through and land on the platform I'm on, causing it to swing a little. "Careful, this platform isn't the most stable." I said. Ori nodded.

There was a second platform not too far from where we were so I jumped to that one, causing it to shake and swing also. Next to the platform was another portal, the room was full of them so I can only assume one leads to another. This kind of reminds me of a game I played once. What was it called? It had something to do with portals and robots and some crazy robot lady…. And cake. I pull a piece of bark from the platform I was standing on and threw it through the portal, and looked around the room to see where it would come out. I see the bark come from the portal directly above Ori, falling on their head. Ori's fine, but they seem a bit upset at me. At least I know where the portal next to me leads. I jump through the portal onto the platform hanging in front of that portal. This place must be pre-built for the portals and platforms to be set up like this.

After a couple of minutes of jumping on platforms and through portals, we made it to the top of the room. Ori immediately made a Soul Link to regain their energy and to catch their breath, and I did the same, and lied on the ground. The ground is hard but it is still better than standing up, and panting like a dog in the summer. Ori sat down next to me and looked down at me. "Hi Ori…" I say to them, still breathing heavily. Ori wasn't out of breath like I was, but they were breathing deeper than usual. I get up and slowly walk up to the portal next to us. Unlike the others, this doesn't lead to a platform, just another room, so I walk through and stop to analyze the area. My stomach growls and I pull a fruit out of my bag, and I eat it. I never really understood the logic of this world. Giant trees, too big to exist, little white creatures, completely genderless, Sein, the spirit tree. I know that things evolve and exist to counteract or complete something, but this… this is crazy, I don't hate it, it's beautiful… this world is literally what a dream would be, but it isn't, I feel pain, I have been here to long for it to be a dream.

Ori walks up behind me and examines the room with me, and holds their hand up for a fruit. I hand them one and they begin eating it, using 2 hands. Ori keeps walking and looking around the room. Sein floats up beside me. "Sein, I know Ori doesn't have a gender, but I keep hearing other guardians as a he or she… why is that?" I ask. "Well every guardian IS genderless, but they are given the gender by the look of their body, mostly determined by their head, and the parts on it. Ori would be a 'he' therefore." Sein says. I'm glad I can call Ori a "he" instead of an "it". I walk up to Ori and put my hand on his head. He looks down into a pit with a portal in it and looks up at another portal above us. He jumps down into the portal below and shoots out of the one above and latches onto the ledge next to it. I decide to use my hook to get up instead of falling, because I don't want to deal with the bad memories of falling right now. I get up to the ledge and stand next to Ori once more, Sein struggling to keep up with us. I stay around Ori mainly because last time I went somewhere without him, I broke both of my legs.

After repeating the actions of examining and jumping and grabbing key stones and opening doors, we come across a strange room. It rallies us near the wall to the west side of the tree and goes straight up about 20 feet so there must be a room next to it. We climb the narrow path and get to the top, and to our surprise we see an Ancestral Tree. "Oh an Ancestral Tree, this could really help us!" Sein said. When have they not helped us? This is only the third one I've seen, and they are extremely helpful. Ori sprinted to the tree and stood in front of it, allowing the light to rush towards them, lifting him into the air. The lightshow was blinding as leaves sprouted on the Ancestral Tree as the light was drained from the tree. The light stopped flowing and Ori fell to the ground. He pushed himself off of the ground and flexed his arms, and clenched his fists, stretching his body parts. "Wait, before you use your ability let me get it to!" I say to Ori.

I walk to the tree and a stream of light rushes towards me. The same process as Ori but not as crazy, since the tree is nearly drained. The light finally stops flowing and I land on the ground, and everything goes black. I regain consciousness to see Ori and Sein next to me. "Ugh, I am never going to get used to that." I say. "Are you ok? Are you hurt?" Sein asks. "No, just like the other 3 times, I am feeling fine, I feel like…. Like I just stood up to fast." I say to Sein. "Well… ok, just make sure you don't die when you do that." Sein says jokingly. I get up and brush the dirt off of me. "Ok, so what new… abilities are we using now." I ask. Ori walks over to a hanging lantern and looks up at a platform, hanging overhead, not reachable by double jump or climb. Ori jumps and shoots off of the lantern faster than a bullet, glowing seeds coming out of the natural hanging light.

He lands on the platform and finds a ball of unrefined light sprouting from it. He lets it dissolve in his hands, filling him with more light. "Oh so it's like a bashing ability, you can only do it off of objects. That will really help" I say to Ori. He jumps down from the platform and bashes off of another lantern which lands him on a ledge higher up into the tree. I try to bash and it kinda works. I will need to practice with it judging by the fact that instead of bashing upward, I instead bash into the wall next to me, knocking the wind out of myself. Ori flinched and jumped down to see if I was ok, which I was but it hurt like hell. "Oh my goodness, Zander… you really need to work on that." Sein says. "Yeah but… that can wait, we have an element to find!" I shout. And I jump up, bashing off the lantern into the air above me, onto the platform, and I sprint into the next portal, not caring about what danger lies ahead of me.


	24. Close Call

CHAPTER 23

Close Call

Zander

We've done it! We've found the element, after 4 hours of climbing. But instead of fixing it immediately, we decided to set up camp and fix it in the morning. Sein said something dangerous would happen that would require us to leave the tree quickly, but she didn't know what, so instead of doing it then and there, we decided to catch our energy and set up camp. It really is quite amazing, the element of waters. It is a giant mass of branches surrounding a blue center, or so it should. The element is pumping out purple water, and has a purple center, because it is taken over by rot and corruption. Ori and I have been staring at it for the past hour or so, and it is becoming close to the time to cleanse it of its corruption and to clean the waters of Nibel. "Well it is becoming time to do this, remember, once we have done this we have to leave quickly." Sein said. "Ok Sein." I said, and Ori nodded. Ori scratched their hand on the ground and pulled a piece of wood off of the inside of the tree. He put it in front of his face and examined it.

It was a strong piece of wood. Ori handed it to me and gestured me to put it in my bag. "Oh, you want me to keep this as a reminder of our adventure in here?" I asked, and Ori nodded. "Ok, that's a good idea… when or if I leave this world, I will still have something to remember you by." My heart began to hurt. I don't want to leave, he's my only friend. "Ok let's do this, we don't have much time." I said, and I put my belongings in my bag along with the wooden piece. "Ok then… Zander, Ori, are you ready?" Sein asked. We both nodded and prepared ourselves for whatever was coming. Sein floated up to the element and went inside of it, turning it blue.

It shined extremely bright and then went back to its original state. Suddenly a sound erupted from beneath us. I walked over to the ledge and looked down, and I saw it, thousands of gallons of water, rushing upwards. THE TREE WAS FLOODING FAST. "ORI, WE HAVE TO GO NOW!" Suddenly a pillar of water shot up from the vertical shaft and Ori immediately began ascending the tree and I followed as fast as I could, dodging enemy after enemy, which shot projectiles at us, and we used to go up faster and faster. We were moving in unison, flowing like water, unlike the water that was rushing upward, threatening to swallow us whole. After a couple of minutes fighting for our lives, we finally started to see the moonlight through the roof of the tree. We shot ourselves up, hanging lantern after hanging lantern, until we finally shot up through the top of the tree, propelled by the water shooting out like a geyser. Ori and I smashed into the ground, but I immediately got up, not feeling pain, mostly because I was so full of adrenaline. "ORI WE DID IT, ONE ELEMENT DOWN… Ori?" I said.

Ori was curled up and wheezing, like the sound of a deer after being shot in the chest… his lung had collapsed. "Ori what's wrong?!" Sein asked. "He landed on his chest, one of his lungs must have collapsed." I said. "Well make a soul link!" Sein said. "No don't even try, that won't fix anything, the only way to fix it is to…. Make a direct passage into his lung." I said. "You… you don't mean…" Sein trailed off. "Does Ori have blood?" I asked. "No, guardians don't need blood, but they do need to breath to replenish their energy." Sein said. I walked up to Ori and felt the left side of his chest. "Does this hurt?" he shook his head. I moved to the right side. "Does this hurt?" He winced and blinked back tears, he was in serious pain, and he nodded. I looked at my hook, the tip was long and thin, with a sharp tip. I pulled it out and got a grip on the bottom of it and placed it over his collapsed lung. "I am so… sorry" I said, and I pushed it into his chest. A gush of air went through his mouth and he began breathing normally. "Ok, make a soul link." I said. After a minute or so of struggling, he finally made one and began to heal. Rain began pouring from the sky… clean, clear water… we did it, we saved one of the elements. Lightning struck next to us, and a pair of huge fiery white eyes opened up next to us, and the creature shot up spreading its large wings. KURO had found us.

Kuro flew around and landed on the ledge right next to us. My ORIGINAL plan was to negotiate with Kuro to leave us alone, but judging by the fact that they are a 10 story tall dark owl with a thirst for blood… ORI'S blood… that plan wouldn't work out too well. Ori had watched in horror with me as Kuro approached us. "Ori… Ori RUN, JUMP OFF THE TREE!" I shouted, as we got up and began running to the edge, and suddenly I see two large wings next to me, and a powerful wall of wind hit me, knocking me unconscious. I was out for a couple of seconds, and came to, midair falling towards the ground a long ways away. I turn my head and see Ori unconscious, falling also. Kuro is flying around to grab him out of the air, and most likely to kill and eat him. I can't let that happen! I turn my body and narrow it, to fall to Ori, and I grab them, and hold them tight in my arms. It is obvious I can't do anything about Kuro, so I hold tight, and brace for what's coming… cherishing the last few moments I have left on this world as she rapidly approached. The last thing I saw were her large white eyes, full of hatred.


	25. Waters Cleansed

CHAPTER 24

WATERS CLEANSED

Ori

My head is pounding, pain is centered in one area on the back of my head. I awaken on a small island in the middle of a lake of clean water. CLEAN. The water is clean! We did it! We still have so far to go though. I turn my head to see Gumo moving away from us, turning his head to look at us one last time and then climb up a tree. He saved us? I turn back around to see Zander pushing himself off of the ground and holding his head. "Agh… what….. What happened?" He said in a groggy voice. "Gumo saved us from an uncertain fate, pulling us from Kuro's talons. If it wasn't for him, we wouldn't be alive right now… but look here! With the element of waters restored the water now runs clear!" Sein said, in some sort of rhyming tone, sounding pretty happy. I push myself up and walk over to the edge of the island and look into the clear water. I cup my hand to scoop up the water and bring it to my face to drink it. It's the freshest water I have ever tasted. I look down and notice a fresh scar on my chest, from when Zander fixed my lung… it still kind of hurts. Something shoves me from behind me and I fall into the water. It's freezing cold. I swim up and see Zander laughing at me. I swim to shore and grab his leg, pulling him into the water with me. "OH, THAT'S COLD! Come on, I had my clothes on." He shouted, and I couldn't help but laugh. It's been so long since I've seen or played around in water, it feels so nice to be in its embrace again. I let my body lie flat on the water and float. It's such a nice day, even though the forest IS dying.

I straighten myself upright and swim towards the shore. Zander is already on the island again drying himself off. "That was really unnecessary Ori… but you still got me." Zander said. "Are you two having fun?" Sein said jokingly. "As a matter of fact, YES, we ARE having fun, all by ourselves." Zander said trying to get under Sein's skin, even if she didn't have any. I cleared my throat audibly to catch their attention, and threw my arms outward to gesture that we had to get moving. I want to see and save this world, and sitting here won't help it much. "Yeah, I guess we should get moving, we still have 2 more elements to fix and it's been like 3 days." Zander said, agreeing with me. "Should've been done by now" Sein murmured. "Hmm? What was that?" Zander asked. "Oh nothing, just talking to myself…" Sein said. Zander looked at Sein questionably and began looking around the area. "Jeez, this place is massive… and pretty… this world is nothing like my world." Zander said. "Well, what is your world look like in comparison to ours?" Sein asked. "Oh, well…. Um, it's pretty weird, the whole world isn't one forest, like this one seems. It's kind of random. Up really high and really low on our world it's extremely cold year round, and in the middle it gets really hot half the year, and a bit cold the rest… I live in the middle unfortunately." He explained. It sounds strangely nice… I'd love to see it sometime. "Hmm… what a weird home you live in." Sein said.

The first thing we noticed while walking around is that there is a locked gate under the tree, and needs four keys to open, hopefully not at the bottom of the lake. The second thing we noticed is that behind one of the waterfalls in the area is a small cavern with a charging creature in it, like the one that killed me before. They were appropriately named "Ram" by Zander. He is good with names, since he named most, if not all of the creatures we have come across so far, _Mortar, Ram, Stomper, Slime, Splitter._ They are pretty clever names, and it's kind of helpful when it comes to what we need to do to deal with them. Rams have tough armor, but that's nothing a charge flame won't handle, while Splitters need regular old Cinder Flame, and if we used a charge flame on them, they would split into tons of small versions of itself, which would overwhelm us. After we went across the lake to the waterfall and took care of the Ram, we noticed that there was a Map Stone, with a large piece of the center missing, making it practically useless. Next to that was a small vertical drop with water in it, and upon exploring it, we found that the floor of it was cracked, but we couldn't do anything about that, so we went back to the locked gate.

"There are four indentions in this gate, so there has to be four keys around here. But we haven't seen any so that means they HAVE to be underwater… this is going to take forever! And I certainly can't hold my breath for that long!" Zander went on for a couple more minutes about how this would take a long time. "ZANDER calm down! Ori can do it, they have small lungs but they retain oxygen extremely well, they can stay underwater for about a minute at a time." Sein said. Great, now I HAVE to do it. If someone can't do it, I have to do it. But it's not like I have a problem doing things, I just don't like being put on the spot like that. "Fine…" I spout to Zander and Sein. "Oh, I keep forgetting you know how to talk… even if it's only a little at a time." Zander says. "They CAN speak and they do understand speech, but most of the time they choose not to." Sein says to Zander. "That's weird." Zander replied. "Well to you it is, to us its normal." This proceeds to another _that is so cool, this world is so weird_ conversation between Zander and Sein. I walk away from the madness to the quiet in the center of the island… it's so nice here, even if everything here is dying. I walk to the edge of the island and dive into the water and begin swimming to the bottom of the lake, searching for the Key Stones so we can get out of here.


	26. Boredom Followed by Broken Ribs

CHAPTER 25

BOREDOM FOLLOWED BY BROKEN RIBS

Zander

I've been sitting here for hours, or what seems like hours. A while ago we wandered into a gigantic cavern, like the largest thing any of us have ever seen, but in the middle of it, suspended on a ledge, was Kuro, who was waiting for us, looking for us. It's obvious they aren't giving up until they obliterate Ori and whatever is left of the light. On the other side of the cavern was the entrance to the Misty Woods, one of the locations we have to visit before we get to the Forlorn Ruins, home of the Wind Element, and the Gumon. The stress of boredom is taking effect. I can't NOT do anything, it is a weakness I have. I have already made tons of holes in the wall to my right with my hook-shot and I have already started counting the feathers on Kuro, I'm at 216, but I think I may have lost count. Suddenly above me, about a kilometer, I see a small white dot on the ledge, it's Ori. They must have gone down the other pathway, the one we haven't explored yet.

On the way here we saw two paths, the one I'm at now, and one leading upward into the cavern but we didn't go down that one because it seemed too dangerous to go down at the moment. Well he and Sein apparently went without me, which was for the best since I _hate_ heights. I lay on my back and watch the little white dot go off the platform and begin bouncing around in the sky, must be things to bash on. After a couple minutes the dot disappears behind a ledge. A couple seconds go by and suddenly the huge rock Ori is on falls down. At least 10 tons of rock fall onto Kuro's head and she falls off the ledge, catches herself and flies away. I'm searching the sky for Ori and I see the dot, except it's getting bigger. Wait, he's FALLING, Ori must be unconscious! "Hold on, hold on…" I say to myself as I push myself up as fast as I can and back up. Maybe catching Ori isn't the best idea, but it's better than letting them injure themselves.

After a couple seconds, Ori's body comes into shape, he is approaching rapidly. I brace myself and tense up my body as about 25 pounds of Ori comes smashing into me. The impact didn't hurt as much as I thought, but being thrown back into a wall however DID hurt. "Ow, damn it… Ori you better not…. Agh… be dead." I say. I look down and Ori is coming to, they are fine, but that much can't be said about myself. Sein comes flying down as fast as they can to see how Ori is and sees me holding them. "Oh, you CAUGHT Ori? Good job, just make sure you aren't hurt." Sein says to me, a little bit too late. I let Ori get out of my arms and I push myself up, I think I broke a rib or two, and my head hurts, but it was worth it. I lie down and make a Soul Link to heal myself. It's always to lie down in one of these, it's like laying in a fire, your whole body is warm but it's not hot. I look around and see a feather, one from Kuro's body float down to where we are. It must have fallen when Ori smashed the boulder on Kuro's head. Ori walked up to it and picked it up. It's huge and tattered, but looks like it would be good to use as a little glider. "We could use that to get across the cavern to the Misty Woods, it is like a 100 foot gap, but it is also lower than the platform we are on, so you could have time to reach the other side." I said to Ori. He takes a step back, feather in both hands and begins running, and jumps off the ledge, gliding all the way to the entrance to the Misty Woods. So at least we know it works. I step back and run for the edge and jump firing my hook at the ledge. It lodges into the side and I swing underneath, nearly hitting the wall. After struggling for a couple minutes I make it to the top and pull myself up. Ori was sitting there waiting for me the whole time. "You know…. You could have…. Pulled me up!" I said to Ori. He nodded and walked into the woods. "Wait, don't go into the Woods yet, wait for me!" I yelled as I followed Ori into the Misty Woods.


	27. The Misty Woods

CHAPTER 26

THE MISTY WOODS

Zander

I hate it here, well not this WORLD, I hate these woods. How they work is unbearable, walk 5 steps see a large rock and a couple trees, walk 20 more steps and the area behind you flashes. You turn around, the large rock and trees are replaced by something else. This place constantly changes right beneath your nose, no wonder everything that wanders in here gets lost. We are laying down for a break and a nap, but Ori is just as awake as I am. He is probably just as freaked out about this place as I am. "What are we doing here exactly?" I ask Sein who is floating around. "We need to find the Gumon Seal to open the Forlorn Ruins, to find the Wind Element." Said Sein. "Yeah, the Gumon Seal… right." I mumble to myself quiet enough to where Sein won't be able to hear me. Maybe touching that orb wasn't the best idea, but then again I'd rather be doing anything but going to school, and besides I like it here. "You guys should be sleeping, what're you doing?" Sein asked. "Well, this isn't exactly the nicest and calmest place in the world." I said. "Ok, what about you Ori?" Sein asked. "I agree." Said Ori.

"Ugh, this place isn't that bad." Said Sein. Suddenly a dim light flashes in the distance and the sound of movement is heard, startling Sein. "Not that bad?" I say. "Oh shut up." Sein snapped. Ori couldn't help but laugh at them. "It's NOT funny, what if there was a monster?!" Sein shouted. "Then we could totally handle it! Look how far we've gotten, look how strong we've become." I said. "Besides, you're going to attract a monster with all of that shouting." I said. Sein has no face or body, since they are a floating ball of light, but I could feel her staring at me with annoyance.

A couple minutes of silence goes by and a question forms in my head… and Sein might know the answer. "Hey… how do you think I got here? I mean in this world?" I ask. Sein is silent for a moment. "Well… the only logical explanation is that you came in through the _Spirit Portal_." Sein said. "The what? What is that?" I asked

"The _Spirit Portal_ is a randomly appearing and disappearing door in the middle of the forest. It is very large, about the size of the door at the Ginso Tree. It has appeared only twice, when it introduced Kharatic Steel, and when you came here. The nature of it is completely unknown because it has only come twice and nobody had the chance to study it, since nobody is prepared for it to come. It appears on a large slab of an unknown material, so we know WHERE it is at, but not when it comes." Said Sein.

I don't know what to think of all of this. A portal? When I got here I was just lying on- what was I on? I don't remember. "So… say if I wanted to get back home, I'm not saying I do but… if I did, how would I get back?" I asked "Well… I don't know… this is the first time it has introduced a living creature to the world. All we know is that it has our light powering it, but for some reason we can't control it or the light inside, which just draws more confusion." Said Sein.

She certainly knows a lot about it this _Spirit Portal_ … but how? If it only appeared twice for a short period of time, how does she have this much knowledge about it? I don't really care about it right now, I just want to get out of here. "I think that's enough of that for now, perhaps we can discuss more of this another night?" I say. "Sounds pretty good… well I think we should get back to finding the Gumon Seal." Says Sein. I look down to see Ori sound asleep and I point at him. "Ugh… maybe in an hour or so." Sein grumbles. I smile and roll over on my side and close my eyes to try to get some sleep before we take on these woods to find the Gumon Seal.


	28. Storytime

CHAPTER 27

STORYTIME

Ori

 _Atsu_ , who is that? Sein keeps talking about _Atsu,_ a guardian spirit who lived in these woods and invented the torch, appropriately named " _Atsu's_ Torch". She keeps saying it's around here, but the constantly changing world keeps leading us in the wrong direction. "I KNEW IT, IT'S THE SAME TREE!" Zander Shouted. Earlier he felt as if we had seen the same area a couple times, so he carved an "X" in a tree to use as a marker, and after walking for a while, we have "rediscovered" it. "Ok fine, we're lost, happy? I DID say that anything that waltzed into here when the shrouded lantern wasn't lit would get lost." Said Sein. "We're going to die down here." Said Zander sounding rather defeated (despite his usually chipper ego). "We are NOT going to die down here! We just need to stay determined, even if it means walking through here for years."

"But the forest doesn't HAVE years, it has DAYS at best! We need to hurry, let's just go places we haven't gone yet, we have to find this torch thing." Zander said. "It's called _Atsu's_ Torch." Said Sein. "What IS _Atsu's_ Torch?" I finally ask. "Oh, well…. When the Misty Woods was discovered, there was no way of mapping the area, since everything kept changing, but we discovered an object, used to light the woods."

"The Shrouded Lantern?"

"Yes, Ori. The Shrouded Lantern, but we had no way of lighting it, since fire didn't work. So up comes one guardian by the name of _Atsu_ , who had a brilliant idea on how to do just that. He had always had a fascination with the light, and how he could tamper with it. Some guardians didn't like him for that reason, so he lived in the Misty Woods with his sister, _Tatsu_. _Tatsu_ learned how to climb the mountains and walls, so they could see how the woods worked." Sein explained.

"Wait, so you were ok with that? Him tampering with the light, the thing you all need to live?" Zander asked.

"We were ok with anything as long as harm wasn't inflicted on anybody… but… as he grew older, he grew weaker, he lost so much light from all of his work, and it couldn't be gained back, the woods were so dark that if he stayed longer he would have turned into… a _wraith_."

A shiver went up my spine at the sound of that word… _Wraith…_

"Did… did he turn into a wraith?" Zander asked, who sounded genuinely concerned about Atsu's well-being.

"No, he never did, but he did sacrifice his whole body to light his torch… that is the reason it burns with the intensity it is at, not only is it the light, but also his soul. It is the first guardian who died just to fix something. Nobody wanted to be around him because they were scared of him, but we held a ceremony for what he did just to cure a forest of its darkness." Said Sein.

"What… what happened to Tatsu?" Zander asked.

"Nobody knows what happened to them, the theory is that they were lost in these woods." Said Sein.

We walked silently for a while, stuck with our imaginations, our thoughts. These woods were the worst thing to happen to us so far. All we have talked or thought about is how we are going to escape.

"Can someone please say something? I don't want to think anymore." Zander asked.

It was quiet for a moment, and then Sein spoke.

"You know, before all of this happened, I never left the spirit tree… I always just sat on top looking around the world. I could see everything, but I could never SEE anything. I never got to explore the world, and I never had a problem with that, but it got lonely sometimes, the spirit tree wasn't a very talkative being. Well one day a little spirit climbed up the Tree, just to see what was on top, and he found me. He saw me in the center of a mass of branches, approached me and said;"

'Hello, I'm Abjor, who are you?'

"Now, I'm not really allowed to talk to anyone, but he came so far just to see what was atop the tree, and I didn't want to disappoint him."

'Hi, I'm Sein, what brings you all the way up here?'

'I got bored, and the tree always shines up top. I was always curious about what was on top, so I climbed up the tree.'

"He was a dedicated spirit, I've never seen anyone actually climb the tree before, mostly out of fear of what would happen. But Abjor, he was fearless, he didn't care about monsters, and he didn't care about heights. He just didn't care about what could happen, he just cared about what he could do, and he was full of so much potential. So he sat up there with me for a couple hours talking to me, it was nice. After a while, he had to go back to the ground. So he said to me;"

'It was really nice to meet you Ms. Sein, can I come back tomorrow?'

"I didn't know what to do, so I said yes. He smiled at me, turned, and leapt off of the tree into the nearby lake. After that he came by every day and talked to me for hours. We shared jokes and stories, and just talked to pass the time. But one day, he seemed different. He wasn't as happy as he usually was. We talked for a while, and his mood didn't change, so I asked him;"

'Hey… what's wrong? You seem down today.'

'I… I can't stay here anymore. I have done the same things every day, and nothing changes. I want to travel the world and see everything. I want to travel further than any of us have ever traveled.'

"I was of course upset about this, losing my only friend, but I didn't want to keep him from his dreams. So I told him he could go as far as he wanted, but to keep me in mind, because I would never forget him. And he said to me;"

'Ms. Sein… I would never forget you… you are my only friend.'

"At that moment, something inside me hurt, never in my life have I ever felt sadness. I watched him gather supplies and leave the area. But before he left he turned around and looked directly at me, and smiled. He turned back around and left, never to be seen again. That was years ago."

Sein's story made me sad. Having only one friend, and then they leave never to be seen again.

"I'm sure they are doing fine Sein, and they are out there having great adventures, and remembering you every step of the way." Zander said.

"Thanks Zander." Sein said.

Just then we came upon an Ancestral Tree, in the middle of a large area surrounded by torches with green flames.

"An ancestral tree!" Sein approached it and examined it, and stopped.

"What, is something wrong?" Zander asked.

"This… This is Tatsu's tree." Sein said.


	29. Pain

CHAPTER 28

PAIN

Zander

"Agh, this stuff is never getting out of my clothes!" I say, trying to rub off the glowing mushroom residue off my shirt and pants. After we found Tatsu's Ancestral Tree (the ability to climb with a better grip) we found these glowing mushroom platforms, which we used to get around. I THOUGHT it was a good idea to use my hook to pull myself towards one that was a bit too far to reach, but when the hook hit it glowing stuff spewed out and got all over my clothes, now they are glowing and I can't clean it up. "Look at the bright side, you kinda look like Ori!" Sein said. Ori smiled at me. "Yeah, kinda." I replied. We kept moving, things were changing all around us, everything was starting to look different, and that means progress. We turn a corner and we see a purple gate, so there must be an enemy around who is bound to it. Suddenly the ground under me shakes, a movement I know too well. I jump out of the way just in time for the Mortar to shoot out to miss me, but the projectile it shoots hits me on the foot, leaving a large spiky bubble sticking my foot to the ground. It hurts as I struggle to pull myself free, and Sein flies over to shoot off the bubble. It finally pops and I fire my hook at the nearest wall, and slide across the floor away from the Mortar that flies out of the ground. They fire another shot and it misses me this time.

Ori is already in the air bashing and stomping the hell out of the Mortar. Suddenly a second one flies out of the ground next to me. How can we kill two of them?! I push myself off the ground and point my hook at one that is about to jump out of the ground, and fire. They fly up as my hook reaches the point and lodges in their neck, pretty painful shot. I yank it out of the air and slam it into the floor to kill it. It hits the ground and my hook lodges further into their neck, killing it instantly. I start trying to pull my hook out, but it is pushed too far into the neck of the creature. Suddenly the ground under me shakes. I'm stuck to the spot and I'm about to be rushed by another mortar. I jump back just in time for the mortar to shoot out of the ground, and it runs directly into the serrated hook wire, cutting it down the center. About half way up the body, the wire stops cutting and the monster falls down to the ground motionless. I am motionless and in shock. I pull my hook out of the creature and sit down on the ground. I just brutally killed two monsters. I look down and I am covered in some sort of grotesque pink slime. I try to wipe it off, it feels really sticky. "Zander, are you ok?" Sein asks. "Ok? I just killed two creatures brutally, and I'm covered in blood… I… I don't feel so very good." I say. "Oh, its fine, its fine, you're in shock. Just calm down and breathe." Sein says, trying to calm me down.

Ori walks over and sits down next to me, setting their arm on my shoulder. I can't handle killing things. I always hated hunting, and I never liked the idea of killing. My head hurts, my leg is bleeding from the projectile one of the monsters shot. I put my hand on it, it stings a lot. "D-damn, this really hurts." I Say quietly. I lay down and try to make a soul link… Nothing. I'm out of energy, so I can't make one. I need life shards or energy shards to heal myself. I push myself up and limp over to the now open door. "Z-Zander! Take it easy you're hurt!" Sein yells. Ori runs up to me to help me walk. "I need to make a soul link, I need to find life or energy shards… or something." I say. I turn the corner and I see Atsu's Torch. At least we FOUND it. Suddenly the area behind me flashes and reveals a new path, towards the shrouded lantern, almost as if Atsu himself was guiding back. I turn back around and stick my hand into the flame of the torch. It's warm, like wrapping up in a fluffy blanket. I close my hand and pull out an orb of solid fire. I'll never understand this world. I place it in my bag and slowly limp back, with Ori keeping me up.

"Sein, take care of all the monsters that are down this path for me?" I ask. "Sure thing." She replies. We make the short journey back to the shrouded lantern, and I get myself up the steps to the lantern. I pull out the large green flame and drop it in the hole. The Lantern bursts into flames and the structure starts moving, revealing a large stone skull. It opens and a glowing, red, diamond shaped stone falls out of the skull, the Gumon Seal. I pick it up and examine it. It has four other diamond shaped rocks orbiting it. Strange. I drop it in my bag and sit down against the Lantern. "Zander… are you ok?" Ori asks. "Yeah, I'm fine, I just need a soul link or a life shard." I reply. "I'm going to get some, please don't go anywhere." Sein said, and bolted away. Ori sat down next to me. "Aren't you gonna go help?" I asked. "And leave you alone? As if." Ori replied.

We sit in the silence of the forest, listening to the faint flickering of the flame in the Shrouded Lantern. The forest stopped shifting and changing, it's just static now. I see light in the distance, Sein is coming back with multiple shards of energy and life floating behind them. Ori moves out of the way and the energy floats to me and sinks into me, disappearing in my body, and I feel my strength returning. "How are you, are you ok?" Sein asks. "Yeah, I'm feeling better." I say. I lie down and create a soul link, another white fire. I lie there for a couple minutes regaining all of my energy. It feels good, like laying down in a nice tub full of warm water. Ori lays down next to me and sighs. "What? What are you sighing about?" I ask.

"Nothing… it's just… we've been through so much, and we aren't even halfway done with this. We have two more elements to find, and we've already done one. This is just a lot to deal with, but we can still do it." Says Ori. I stayed silent, but nodded my head to show I was actually listening. Everything Sein told me about Ori, it must be rough… losing someone you loved at such a young age. I look down at my foot to check for damages. It looks a lot better, with the exception of some serrated needles sticking out. I sit up and start slowly pulling them out. It hurts a lot, but sitting inside the Soul Link's flame helps with that. I finally get one out, and a bit of blood flows out of my leg before healing back up. "Are you ok?" Ori asks.

"Yeah, I'm doing fine, but I just can't go anywhere with these freakin' needles in my leg." I reply. I sat there for about thirty minutes pulling needle after needle out of my leg, making a small pile next to me. Soon they are all out, leaving me with a red, irritated, swollen leg. I fall back over and lie there some more. The pain is finally over. I allow my leg time to shrink back to its original size and I stand back up, brushing all of the solidified slime off of my clothes, or as much of it as I could. "Ori uh…. Let's go back to the lake so I can… get this crap off of me." I said. He smiled and we walked out of the woods, and back to the lake for a swim.


	30. Night Terrors

CHAPTER 29

NIGHT TERRORS

Ori

It's dark… I'm standing in the middle of a forest, but not Nibel. It's different. I look ahead and I see Zander on his knees looking the other way. His head is pointed downward. But… it isn't Zander. Zander has the light in him but… this one… he is resonating with something… dark… scary… my body begins to shake. What is this feeling? I slowly take a step back and something snaps under my back foot. I look down. It's a charred branch. I look around and see I'm what used to be a forest, but was reduced to dust and ashes. I look forward to see Zander looking directly at me. His whole body is black, with the exception of half of his face. It looks like his body is being taken over by a dark force. "Ori, are you surprised? It's me, your best friend." He says. "Z-Zander? Y-You aren't w-well, w-we need to fix y-you!" I say to him. My body is overwhelmed with fear. "FIX me? But Ori… I feel G… O… O… D… I've never felt better in my life." He says. He stares unblinking. The eye on the normal side of his face is the same as always, but his eye on the corrupt side… it's blood red. I'm terrified, petrified with fear.

"W-Where is Sein?" I ask. "What? Oh… Sein… SHE'S DEAD." He says. Tears are flowing from my eyes. I can't calm down. "What's wrong Ori? Oh… you're feeling left out? Here… let me help…" He says. He gets down on one knee and explodes forward. I put my hands up to block his attack, but he disappears. Suddenly I feel a sharp pain in my back and chest. I look down and see the tip of his pitch-black hand sticking out of my chest. It hurts… it hurts… I turn my head and look Zander directly in the eye. Tears are leaking from his eyes. "Don't worry. Just let it flow… let it take control of your body. It won't hurt for much longer." He says quietly. Suddenly, black liquid begins flowing outward from my wound, and it's spreading. It hurts more than anything I have ever felt before in my life. I begin sobbing as it spreads to my neck, then my face. It's eating away at my skin. "JUST LET IT TAKE CONTROL" He says. The black liquid reaches my eyes. I feel it seeping in. Suddenly I come to, screaming, on the small island in the middle of the lake. "Ori? ORI, WHATS WRONG?" Zander shouts. He wraps his arms around me and pulls me to his chest, holding me tightly. "Ori, what happened." He said. "Y-YOU, THE FOREST, YOU ATTACKED ME, YOU WERE CORRUPTED, I… I…" I stammered.

"Shhhhhhhhh… It was all just bad dream… I would never do anything like that… you have to go back to sleep, we have a lot we have to do tomorrow." He said, grasping me tightly. I nodded and closed my eyes, still full of tears, and relaxed. I just hope that what I saw, stays in my nightmares. I drift into sleep knowing that Zander and Sein still love me.


End file.
